Mainland China demand crucial to restoring Singapore Airlines’ flight capacity, CEO says
- CEO Goh Choon Phong says Singapore Airlines and budget arm Scoot aim to restore pre-pandemic passenger capacity within 2024-25 financial year
- Singapore Airlines Group passenger capacity expected at about 92 per cent on average of pre-pandemic levels in December; Cathay Pacific aims for 70 per cent by year-end
Demand for travel from mainland China is crucial to restoring Singapore Airlines’ pre-pandemic passenger capacity, but it “may take a while” to recover, according to the carrier’s CEO.
The Singapore Airlines Group, which includes budget arm Scoot, aims to restore passenger capacity in the coming financial year to levels last seen before the global Covid-19 health crisis decimated demand for travel, according to a first-half earnings report released this week.
Speaking ahead of a meeting of top regional airline executives in the city state, CEO Goh Choon Phong on Wednesday stressed that achieving that goal depended on how strongly passenger demand picked up, and he singled out the mainland’s appetite for outbound travel as a key factor. But demand from the mainland had yet to reach pre-pandemic levels, he said.
“It may take a while,” he said, adding the carrier would “respond accordingly in terms of capacity”.
Goh noted the mainland resumed its 15-day visa-free arrangement for Singaporeans in July, which had helped to boost demand.
He was speaking as the carrier prepared to host the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines Assembly of Presidents in Singapore on Thursday and Friday.
Association director general Subhas Menon said mainland China was “the elephant that was not in the room, [but] is now in the room”, referring to authorities dropping travel restrictions later than elsewhere in the region.
