All posts tagged: Covid-19

Scoot flies to six cities in June

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Scoot recommences services to Guangzhou, Ipoh, Penang and Kuching Even as Singapore Airlines and Silkair retains a skeletal schedule in June, Scoot has decidedly expanded the number of destinations it will serve in June, serving as a signal for the early recovery of air travel volumes. After operating to only Hong Kong and Perth in the months of April and May, Scoot adds another four cities into the fold of destinations for June: Guangzhou in China, as well as Ipoh, Penang and Kuching in neighbouring Malaysia. Apart from the Boeing 787-9s that Scoot has been using for its Hong Kong and Perth flights, Scoot will also be bringing back some A320s for the Malaysian sectors. Scoot’s full schedule for June is as follow: Sector Flight no. Days of ops Dep Arr Flight time Aircraft Singapore – Guangzhou TR100 Sun 0515 0915 4h B787-9 Guangzhou – Singapore TR101 Sun 1040 1440 4h B787-9 Singapore – Hong Kong TR980 Tue, Fri, Sun 1415 1820 4h 5m B787-9 Hong Kong – Singapore TR981 Tue, Fri, Sun 1920 2315 …

Hong Kong airport to accept transit passengers from 1 Jun

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The airport joins Singapore in opening up air passenger transit traffic once again Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam announced on 26 May that transit services at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) will “partly resume” from 1 Jun. This announcement came weeks after Singapore announced a similar move to allow transit traffic from 2 Jun. Hong Kong implemented a ban on all non-resident visitors into Hong Kong, as well as transit passengers through HKIA since 25 Mar. All returning residents were also required to go to AsiaWorld Expo site for a compulsory Covid-19 test, before they were dispatched home to serve a 14-day self-quarantine. Cathay Pacific group to benefit Since the ban on transit passengers kicked in from 25 Mar, Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon collectively saw a drastic drop in passenger numbers, well over 99% compared to same period last year. Cathay Pacific, which has been hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic, has since April operated to “a skeleton schedule” of barely a dozen destinations served by just a handful of flights per week. The reopening of …

Changi Airport to allow transit passengers again from 2 Jun

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The opening of transit facilities come after an all-out ban on transit and short term visitors into Singapore since 24 Mar Singapore earlier this week (19 May) announced that it will officially be ending its ‘circuit breaker’ on 1 Jun, and doing a slow re-opening of the domestic economy in a three-phase approach. Later in the evening, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) also issued a media release announcing that it will be allowing transit passengers through Changi Airport from 2 Jun as well, after local lockdown restrictions ease. Transit visitors banned since 24 Mar Since 24 Mar, Changi Airport has banned transit passengers on top of barring all short term visitors in order to combat the spread of Covid-19. Of course, with no more leisure visitors and the absence of transit passengers, Changi’s passenger movements fell drastically. In April alone, Changi Airport only handled 25,200 passengers, 99.5% lower than the previous year’s 5.58 million passengers. Changi will welcome transit passengers from 2 Jun According to the CAAS announcement, transit travellers will be allowed through Changi …

Changi Airport to shut Terminal 4 temporarily from 16 May

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Not many airlines are operating there for now, anyway. Changi Airport today (12 May) announced that it will be suspending operations at Terminal 4 from 16 May until further notice. It said in a press release: Changi Airport’s terminal operations will be consolidated further to optimise resources in tandem with the sharp decline in flight movements because of the global Covid-19 pandemic. This move will enable Changi Airport Group (CAG) and its airport partners to continue to save on running costs such as utilities and cleaning. Changi Airport Group, press release dated 12 May 2020 Earlier this month, Changi Airport shut Terminal 2 from 1 May for a period of 18 months to upgrade the aged terminal. This is the first time Changi Airport has closed off an entire terminal to facilitate upgrading works in its almost 40 years of operations. Where are T4 airlines moving to? Some time last month, Cathay Pacific has already moved to Terminal 1 at Changi Airport for its 2 to 3 flights each week. It has closed off its …

Qantas puts Project Sunrise on hold

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Non-stop flights from Sydney, Melbourne to London, New York will have to take a stop for now Qantas has suspended its plans for direct flights between Australia east coast to London and New York, also called Project Sunrise, due to uncertainty over travel demand even after Covid-19 fades. Project Sunrise was set to launch by 2023, but in a report by Executive Traveller, Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce has confirmed that the project will be put on hold, for now. A350 orders put on hold Qantas has earlier announced that it would order 12 dedicated A350-1000 for this project. The final decision was meant to be made in March 2020, but of course in the face of Covid-19, this was quickly paused indefinitely. According to Executive Traveller, the dedicated fleet of up to 12 Airbus A350-1000 jets would have been “valued as high as $6.8bn (US$4.4bn) based on Airbus’ list price”, Qantas announced Project Sunrise proposal as early as August 2017, initially mapping out potential non-stop destinations such as New York, London and Rio de Janeiro from …