All posts tagged: News

Singapore Airlines and Silkair increase flights in July 2020

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Slight increase over June’s operations, but still down 94% from last year Singapore Airlines and Silkair has updated its July flight schedules, operating to a total of 27 cities across 18 countries/territories. While this is no change from June, there are some favourable developments, including the commencement of transit traffic from select countries. Singapore Airlines schedule Singapore Airlines has not announced any ‘new’ destinations that it will be serving in July, but some notable observations for July schedules are as follow: Auckland now sees three flights a week, up from two in the month of June Flights to Manila are now possible, albeit only two services in the month of July Scoot has resumed a weekly service to Taipei, and also planned some ad-hoc services to Surabaya towards the end of July [Update 8 July] Silkair has removed its earlier planned services to Cebu, while Singapore Airlines will be commencing twice-weekly flights to Paris from 15 July. In addition, passengers will not be accepted on flights from Singapore to Melbourne due to government restrictions, although …

Qantas slashes 6,000 jobs, including 180 at Jetstar Asia

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Jetstar Asia will also be returning five aircraft, reducing fleet size to 13 aircraft. Qantas announced today its post-Covid-19 plans, which include a reduction in workforce as well as issuance of new shares to raise more cash for the airline. The airline is also targeting to reduce its cost by A$15 billion over the next three years. Key to this announcement was a 20% reduction in the Qantas workforce, translating to 6,000 jobs, and continuing to place another 15,000 employees on no-pay leave. Qantas will also be raising up to A$1.9 billion in equity through issuance of new shares. Three-year strategy Qantas Group announced a three-year plan to accelerate its recovery from the havoc that Covid-19 wrecked upon global travel. The plan is aimed towards future profitability, long-term shareholder value and to preserve as many jobs as possible. Qantas’ three-pronged approach can be outlined as follow: Rightsize the Group’s workforce, fleet and other costs according to demand projections, with the ability to scale up as flying returns. Restructure to deliver ongoing cost savings and efficiencies across the …

Jetstar Asia extends cancellations through 31 Jul

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The Singapore-Colombo launch is also postponed until 26 Oct Jetstar Asia announced yesterday (18 Jun) that it will be cancelling all flights up to 31 Jul, except for the five weekly services that it has been operating in the past weeks. In addition, the Singapore-Colombo service which was to be launched on 1 Jul will also be pushed back to commence from 26 Oct 2020. As again, all impacted Jetstar Asia passengers will be offered a refund to the full value of their untraveled booking in the form of a travel credit voucher. Jetstar Asia has already announced an enhancement to its credit vouchers, extending the validity from the original six months to a year. The credit voucher can also be used in multiple bookings. Note that passengers with a booking to/from the Philippines, Australia, Sri Lanka or Japan are requested to wait to receive a letter from Jetstar regarding available options, which will likely include a cash refunds as protected until local consumer laws. Jetstar Asia services still operating Since late April, Jetstar has been operating …

Qantas cancels all international services until end-October

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The Australian carrier is also set to mothball all its A380s. Qantas has extended the suspension of all international flights until 24 Oct 2020, excluding services to New Zealand. Flights to New Zealand has also been provisionally cancelled until end of June, although New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has earlier said that September was a more “realistic” timeframe for Trans-Tasman travel to resume. An internal note sent to employees by Qantas International CEO, Tino La Spina, also said that most staff engaging with international operations will continued to stood down until then. The international cancellations has already been reflected on Qantas’ website. Qantas is currently also not operating any international repatriation services nor charter flights. All Qantas A380s grounded; half of fleet tipped to go into long-term storage Executive Traveller earlier this week reported that Qantas is expecting its entire flagship Airbus A380 fleet will be grounded for a while. The A380s typically serve high traffic, slots-constraint air corridors, including Sydney-London via Singapore, as well as Sydney-Los Angeles and Sydney-Dallas Fort Worth. Qantas has …

American Express adds Qantas as a redemption partner

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You can now convert your American Express Membership Rewards points to Qantas Frequent Flyer points American Express has added Qantas to its fold of frequent flyer programmes partners, the fourth Oneworld programme to be added. This latest addition will allow both its charge card and credit card members to convert their Membership Points into Qantas points. The details Cardholders with Membership Rewards (MR) points will be able to convert 450 MR points to 250 Qantas points. This conversion rate is similar to what Amex offers for other FFPs, including Krisflyer, Asia Miles and Emirates Skywards. For Amex Centurion or Platinum Charge cardmembers, the conversion rate is a preferential 400 points to 250 airline miles. Second widest range of conversion partners This brings the total number of transfer partners for Amex to nine partners, tied in the second spot with Standard Chartered. Citibank remains at top spot with the most number of redemption options for your credit card points. The full list of airline frequent flyer programme conversion partners for Amex is as follow: British Airways …