Singapore Airlines details wide range of capacity cuts

By Nicholas Ionides

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has unveiled capacity cuts across much of its passenger network as it copes with a drop in demand amid the global economic downturn.

The Star Alliance carrier said earlier this week that it will now be decommissioning 17 aircraft in the financial year starting 1 April, rather than four aircraft as previously planned. It said this would amount to an 11% reduction in capacity.

SIA says now that the 11% capacity reduction will come from service cuts across much of its network, on all its key route regions.

It says that for services to the Americas it will be reducing frequency on Los Angeles and Newark routes and will use Boeing 777-300ERs instead of larger Boeing 747-400s for services to San Francisco via Hong Kong.

For Europe, it will replace a daily 747-400-operated London Heathrow service with a 777-300ER-operated service while also reducing frequency to Manchester and Rome.

For Australia, it will be reducing frequency to Brisbane, Perth and Sydney, while for Southeast Asia it will be reducing frequency to Bangkok and Jakarta.

For North Asia, it will reduce frequency to Seoul, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Hong Kong.

For West Asia and Africa it will be reducing frequency to Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Colombo and Male.

Some of the reductions had already been announced but many are new. It had also previously announced plans to withdraw services to Amritsar in India and Vancouver in Canada.

"The drop in demand owing to the global economic slowdown is the driver of the reduction in capacity," it says.

"Going forward, Singapore Airlines will continue to monitor demand patterns and will make changes to its network when necessary."