SIA ramps up flights to Europe, Australia, SEA in 2025
Singaporeans looking to travel in 2025 will have more flight options if they travel with Singapore Airlines (SIA).
The national carrier said on Aug 12 that it will increase flight frequency and boost passenger capacity across its network from March 30 to Oct 25, 2025, to support the higher demand for air travel to several popular destinations. For instance, SIA will have daily flights to London’s Gatwick Airport from March 30, up from five weekly services currently.
This means that the airline will have five daily services to the British capital, including its four daily flights to Heathrow Airport.
Flights to the Italian capital Rome will also increase to five times a week between June 26 and Aug 28, up from the current four weekly flights.
SIA added that it will not operate its three weekly Singapore-Milan-Barcelona flights from June 24 to Sept 7. It will instead operate more direct flights between Singapore and the two European cities.
The airline will have five weekly direct flights to Barcelona in Spain during the period, up from two currently. It will run a flight daily to Milan in Italy, up from four times weekly now.
Flights to Adelaide in Australia will increase to 10 a week from Oct 27, 2024, to Oct 25, 2025, up from the current seven weekly trips.
Flight frequency to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam will rise to thrice daily, up from 19 weekly. Services to Cambodia’s Siem Reap will double to twice daily.
The national carrier will also offer more flight options to destinations such as Johannesburg, South Africa.
SIA will continue to fly to Manchester in Britain five times weekly, but will no longer fly from Manchester to Houston from April 1.
The carrier regularly reviews its network and routes to align its capacity with demand, said its acting senior vice-president of marketing planning, Mr Dai Haoyu.
“These adjustments, ahead of next summer, cater to the higher demand to several destinations, particularly during the traditional mid-year peak travel season, enabling our customers to confidently make their 2025 travel plans,” he said.
The number of passengers flying SIA and its low-cost unit Scoot in the three months to June 30, 2024, hit 9.6 million, up 13.8 per cent from the same period in 2023.
The rising demand was attributed to the mid-year school holidays in Singapore and the Northern Hemisphere’s summer travel season.
University College London undergraduate Dillion Lee said he was surprised by SIA’s addition of flights to London’s Gatwick Airport, but added that he would still prefer to fly to Heathrow Airport from Singapore as Gatwick is farther from the city centre.
The 23-year-old student estimates that it would take about 90 minutes to drive from Gatwick Airport to the city, compared with a 45-minute drive from Heathrow Airport.
Mr Lee said: “While there are rail services that take less time (from Gatwick to the city), those can be a little unreliable when they (workers) go on strike, and it can be a hassle when travelling with a lot of luggage.”
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