Singapore Airlines Cuts Australian Flights

[Brad Myer]

Flights to Sydney, Perth and Brisbane will be among 200 cut by Singapore Airlines between now and the end of March as the carrier battles to cope with falling passenger demands.

Singapore Airlines will also cut the numbers of flights to China and India and Hong Kong in Asia, while services to London and Zurich will also shrink, according to a report in the Straits Times.

Overall, the reductions represent just under 3% of the total number of flights operated by SIA, the paper said.

"We do not want to be flying half-empty planes around the world any longer than we have to, because it increases our cost burden at a time when we can least afford to," the paper quoted SIA spokesman Stephen Forshaw saying.

SIA said on Thursday it filled 65.8% of the space available on its planes for passengers and cargo in December, down from 70.7%.

What SYD/BNE/PER Flights?

[Marty H]

Need to cut that extra flight they have into MEL ops by a B772, only had a 139 pax going out last night on it.

[Andrew McLaughlin]

I hope this isn't for the chopping block either, but the evening 77W out of Sydney looks like it went out a bit light on Tuesday night too...

http://www.jetphotos.net/viewqueued_b.php?id=2307698

[Sarmad Al-Khozaie]

I Can tell where they are coming from, especially on premium services ( Business class, etc) My last flight with SQ being in xmas period and new years. On SQ222 Business class only had 12 passengers on board and on return SQ233 Business class only 8 out of 42 seats in Business class available.

So its bitting hard I guess.

[Jim Liu]

I did 3 posts on SIA reductions a while ago:

http://airlineroute.blogspot.com/200...febmar-09.html
http://airlineroute.blogspot.com/200...ellations.html
http://airlineroute.blogspot.com/200...justments.html

The full breakdown for the 2009 Northern Summer schedule of SIA:
http://airlineroute.blogspot.com/200...n-preview.html

Singapore - Brisbane
SQ255/256, service reduction from 5 weekly to:
10FEB09 - 25FEB09 4 weekly (Day 1367)
26FEB09 - 28MAR09 3 weekly (Day 567)


Singapore - Sydney
SQ233/234, service reduction from planned 5 weekly to 3 weekly (Day 567) from 16FEB09 to 28MAR09

[steve k]

Malaysia numbers ex ADL are also going to be very low in coming weeks , it will pick up I hope, but forecasts are low, and not just MAS, but Qantas too. A sign of the times at the moment!!

[Marty H]

Originally Posted by steve k

Malaysia numbers ex ADL are also going to be very low in coming weeks , it will pick up I hope, but forecasts are low, and not just MAS, but Qantas too. A sign of the times at the moment!!

All carriers I was just looking at the FID screens here in MEL and EK MEL-AKL tomorrow morning has 39 pax

[Grant Smith]

Originally Posted by Jim Liu

Singapore - Sydney
SQ233/234, service reduction from planned 5 weekly to 3 weekly (Day 567) from 16FEB09 to 28MAR09

Always thought this flight was going to stay seasonal, not really the demand in the winter time for the 4th flight...

Try getting a flight to SYD this week with SQ! (Gotta love Chinese New Year)

[Mark Grima]

from todays smh.com.au

More flight cuts from SQ

Singapore Airlines said Wednesday it will suspend some international flights as the worsening global economy takes its toll on travel demand.

Flights to India, Southeast Asia, the United States and Europe will be affected, SIA said in a statement.

"Singapore Airlines is making further adjustments to its route network to better match capacity with demand," it said.

"Where demand falls, capacity adjustments will be made and this process will continue going forward."

It said the changes will be implemented progressively and will apply until the end of March.

Flights between Singapore and the Indian city of Hyderabad will be cut to three times weekly from four, the airline said.

Service between Singapore and New Delhi will be trimmed to five times a week from six, while Mumbai-Singapore service will be cut to four times a week from five.

In Southeast Asia, two flights between Singapore and Bangkok will be suspended from February 2, although the airline said it will continue to operate 25 flights a week to and from the Thai capital.

In Europe, two flights operating between Singapore and London will be suspended on Mondays and Thursdays from March 9-23. The frequency on the Singapore-London route will be cut to 19 flights a week from 21.

Services between Singapore and Zurich will be reduced from daily to five times a week, SIA said.

At the same time, it said it would add some services to the Middle East.

Earlier Wednesday, SIA said it was reducing its all-business class service to New York and Los Angeles in the face of the global economic downturn.

The 14 weekly Airbus A345 flights will be cut to 10, it said, adding the change will initially take effect between February 17 and March 25.

"This is part of our capacity adjustments to ensure capacity better matches demand during the economic downturn," SIA's vice president of public affairs, Stephen Forshaw, said in a statement.

"We don't want to be flying half-empty planes around the world any longer than we have to, because it increases our cost burden at a time when we can least afford that."

The non-stop all-business service to New York began in May last year, followed by Los Angeles in August.

SIA said its December passenger numbers were down 7.5 per cent year-on-year.

Analysts have said the airline industry will be hit hard by the deepening global economic slump which has seen people cut back on discretionary spending such as leisure travel.

Airlines based in the Asia Pacific region carried 141.5 million international passengers in 2008, or 1.8 per cent fewer than record levels in 2007, an industry group said last week.