Page 8 - AAA JANUARY-MARCH 2021 Online Magazine

everything, all indications from the Ministry are BE KEY TO THE REOPENING OF BORDERS AND TO
that okay in another 6 weeks, 8 weeks, all those ENHANCING TRAVEL CONFIDENCE, IN TANDEM
markets would be back,” Dutta says. IndiGo WITH ROBUST TESTING REGIMES AND THE WIDE-
remains confident that markets important to it,
such as Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, RANGING SAFE MANAGEMENT MEASURES THAT
etc will see a return of travel and demand by ARE IN PLACE ON THE GROUND AND IN THE

April. “So, in our markets again, our goal is let AIR. THEY OFFER GREATER PROTECTION FOR
us get back to 100% of domestic capacity by OUR PEOPLE AND PROVIDE AN ADDED LAYER
April, let us get back to about 50% of interna-
tional capacity by mid next year and 100% of OF ASSURANCE TO OUR CUSTOMERS,” Goh Choon
international capacity by the end of calendar Phong, CEO, Singapore Airlines.
year 21” says Dutta.
As of end December 2020, SIA had increased the destinations it
SIA Group Waits for Travel served, including Singapore, from 31 at the end of September 2020
Revival to 38. SilkAir increased the destinations served to eight, up from
Singapore International Airlines (SIA) Group six, while Scoot’s network remained unchanged with 17 destina-
reported that International air travel demand tions. The Group’s passenger network at the end of December,
remained severely constrained in its third quar- stood at 54 destinations including Singapore, as compared to 43
ter, with passenger carriage shrinking by 97.6% three months ago. SIA reinstated services to Dubai, Moscow and
year-on-year. This was the result of continued Munich starting January.
border controls and travel restrictions in many
countries amid new waves of the Covid-19 The SIA Group fleet comprises of 185 passenger and cargo aircraft,
infection. All three passenger airlines within however it has parked 123 aircraft, including the 33 surplus aircraft.
the Group recorded a sharp drop in passen- Its passenger network is currently supported by approximately 64
ger flown revenue due to low traffic. Based on aircraft. With all its seven freighters fully utilised, the SIA Group
current schedules, as of end-April 2021, the has pressed approximately 24 passenger aircraft deployed on
Group’s total passenger capacity is expected cargo-only services. The utilisation of the freighter fleet was also
to be at around 25% of pre-Covid levels, and maximised to deliver more cargo capacity. More aircraft are planned
expects to serve around 45% of the points that to be re-introduced into its operating fleet as the network gradually
it flew to before the crisis. expands to match opportunities for re-opening. In February, the
SIA Group announced that it had reached agreements with Airbus
Across the SIA Group airlines, Singapore and Boeing to revise its aircraft delivery schedule. This will enable
Airlines (SIA), SilkAir and Scoot, the sharp drop the SIA Group to defer more than $4 billion of capital expenditure
in passenger flown revenue due to low traffic between FY20/21 and FY22/23 to later years. Some of the aircraft
was partially offset by improvements in cargo on its order book will now be delivered over a longer period than
flown revenue. The carrier’s benefited from originally contracted, with the delivery stream spread out beyond
the global airfreight capacity crunch providing the immediate five years. In addition to spreading out its aircraft
them with strong support for both load factors delivery stream, SIA has catered for its projected long-term fleet
and yields. Demand was particularly strong for needs beyond FY25/26 with the conversion of 14 Boeing 787-10
pharmaceutical and e-commerce shipments, aircraft into 11 additional Boeing 777-9 aircraft. As of February, the
with an uptick in general cargo demand. To SIA Group’s revised order book stands at 35 Airbus A320 Family
meet burgeoning demand, the frequency aircraft, 15 A350-900s, 31 737-8s, 50 787 Family jetliners including
of passenger aircraft operating cargo-only 31 737-8s and 31 777-9s.
flights was stepped up. The Group’s cargo
network comprises 66 destinations (including
Singapore) as at 31 December 2020, up from
62 as at 30 September 2020.

In February, SIA Group announced that
Singapore Airlines (SIA), SilkAir and Scoot
would become amongst the first carriers in the
world to operate flights with a full complement
of vaccinated pilots and cabin crew.

“WE ARE VERY ENCOURAGED
BY THE STRONG TAKE-UP RATE
FOR THE VACCINE FROM OUR
COLLEAGUES. VACCINATIONS WILL

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