Singapore Airlines Group (SIA) expects passenger capacity to reach 37% of pre-pandemic levels by the third quarter of the financial year of 2021/2022. The positive outlook comes as the airline experienced a stronger demand for travel in September 2021.
The figures for September 2021 show that the Group’s passenger capacity remained at around 32% of pre-COVID levels, while the load factor had increased to 18.5%. Passenger traffic has also increased by 4.4%.
The uptick in travel demand was followed by the introduction of the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme by the Singaporean government, which allows fully-vaccinated passengers from certain countries to travel without restrictions.
In a statement, SIA revealed: “On a month-on-month basis, the load factor improved by 1 percentage point, led by Europe which saw positive pick up on Frankfurt and Munich VTL services.”
On September 8, 2021, Singapore launched its first Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) arrangements with Brunei and Germany.
In October 2021, Singapore announced that its VTL scheme would be expanded to include nine more countries (Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States).
In addition, SIA will add trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic services and plans to resume the Frankfurt-New York and Hong-Kong-San Francisco routes from early November 2021.
Singapore Airlines (SIA1) (SINGY) will also restart Airbus A380 operations to London, the United Kingdom beginning November 18, 2021.