SIA’s low-cost carrier Scoot will become one of the first airlines in decades to operate international jet services at Kuala Lumpur’s Subang Airport, with a daily link to and from Singapore Changi set to launch from 1st September 2024, including one-way fares from S$33 now loaded for sale.

Surprisingly though, the route will not be a new addition to Scoot’s regional Embraer E190 roster, which currently includes the likes of Koh Samui, Krabi and Miri, but will instead be operated by 180-seat Airbus A320s once per day.

Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines (SIA), today announced the launch of its new flight route to Subang, Malaysia, effective 1 September 2024. Operated by the Airbus A320 aircraft, the 7x weekly flights aim to provide customers with an alternative option to conveniently travel between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

Scoot

Subang Airport hasn’t seen jet operations for over 26 years, when these flights moved across to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in 1998, but these will reportedly return from August 2024 onwards with a selection of domestic and international Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 services on the cards.

The schedule

Scoot will launch a daily service between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur Subang Airport from September 2024, as shown below.

Singapore ⇄ KL Subang
From 1st September 2024

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	TR462 A320ceo
SIN 11:55		SZB 13:10
	TR463 A320ceo
SZB 14:10		SIN 15:20

Scoot will offer a lunchtime hop up to KL Subang from Changi each day, with an early afternoon service in the return direction.

Flights are loaded for sale via the Scoot website right through to the end of the airline’s bookable schedule a year from now – in July 2025.

Scoot also offers up to 33 weekly flights to and from KLIA, based on September 2024 schedules, using a mixture of Airbus A320, Airbus A321 and Boeing 787 aircraft.

With the addition of Subang, Scoot’s passenger network will increase to 70 destinations, and the additional services will increase the carrier’s tally of flights to Malaysia to 110 per week in total.

Is Malacca next?

Scoot is also said to be launching Singapore – Malacca flights from the end of September 2024, probably using its E190 aircraft, though no formal announcement on this has yet been made and the suggestion of a six times daily service (42 flights per week) is borderline insanity.

We suspect a six times per week flight may be on the cards, so watch this space for any developments.

Fares

Scoot’s introductory one-way fares from Singapore to KL Subang start at S$83.

In the return direction (with much lower taxes) it’s even better – you can snag a seat for as little as S$33 at the time of writing.

Subang Airport

Formerly Kuala Lumpur’s main airport, Subang has become a turboprop-only gateway for the city since KLIA opened, with a range of domestic and international services operated mostly by Firefly and Berjaya Air.

Firefly even flies to Subang from Singapore, but uses the smaller Seletar Airport for these services.

The great benefit with Subang is its proximity to central Kuala Lumpur.

For example, a cab from KL Subang Airport to the Hilton Kuala Lumpur takes as little as 20 minutes with no traffic, compared to 45 minutes with no traffic from KLIA.

Obviously peak timings result in longer journeys, but you should still be able to go to and from downtown KL more quickly using Subang Airport compared to KLIA, which is great news for those on short weekend trips.

Airbus A320s

Perhaps surprisingly, Scoot won’t be operating this short hop between Singapore Changi Airport and KL Subang Airport using its newly-acquired Embraer E190-E2 regional jets.

The airline must be optimistic about demand on this route, since it has chosen the larger 180-seat Airbus A320ceo aircraft for the new daily service, offering 60% more capacity than the E190s.

It will be interesting to see whether the E190s do eventually make onto Subang flights as more of those aircraft are delivered this year and in 2025, especially if Scoot can secure more slots at Subang to expand this upcoming once daily option.

Earn but don’t burn miles on Scoot

As you probably recall, you’ll earn some KrisFlyer miles based on the cash fare for your Scoot flight, which is always better than nothing.

On the redemption side, however, KrisFlyer works on a fixed value basis for offsetting Scoot cash fares at a terrible 0.95 Singapore cents per mile.

Our ‘golden rule’ when flying Scoot, therefore, is that you should be saving your precious KrisFlyer miles for their true value – a Singapore Airlines redemption – not a Scoot booking!

It means Scoot won’t offer a good KrisFlyer miles redemption option on its KL Subang route, because awards on the low-cost carrier are revenue-based, and terrible value.

Scoot will be one of the first airlines to reintroduce international jet operations to Kuala Lumpur’s secondary airport Subang from 1st September 2024, initially with a daily passenger service loaded that’s now for sale with fares as low as S$33 one-way.

Surprisingly the new service will use Airbus A320 aircraft, rather than the carrier’s recently introduced Embraer E190 jets, suggesting that the latter may simply not have the seating capacity Scoot foresees will be needed on this route.

Hopefully more flights and more airlines can also offer Subang flights as restrictions on jet operations there are lifted, for quicker journeys to and from KL’s downtown districts, especially important for both business and leisure passengers when taking short trips.

(Cover Photo: Changi Airport Group)