Singapore Airlines to restore pre-Covid flight frequency to Indian cities

Singapore, August 2:  The Singapore Airlines Group (SIA), co-owner of Indian carrier Vistara, has planned to restore all flights in India to pre-pandemic levels by the end of October. The airlines group will gradually increase its frequency to Indian cities. Also Read| Seven tourists from Punjab's Banur drown in Gobind Sagar Lake in Una Flights will be operated 17 weekly services to Chennai, up from the current 10 flights per week. Kochi services will go up to 14 times weekly, up from the current seven flights per week. Bengaluru services will go up to 16 times weekly, up from the current seven flights per week. According to the Singapore Airlines Group, the strong recovery in air travel that continued in May 2022 and even this month is because of Singapore's relaxed border restrictions which started in April, which removed "the need for quarantine and on-arrival Covid-19 tests for fully vaccinated travellers and removing pre-departure Covid-19 tests." The SIA Group recorded its highest-ever first-quarter operating profit of Singapore Dollar (SGD) 556 million last week (USD 403 million) on "surging passenger demand". Notably, this is the second-highest quarterly operating profit in the airline's history. Meanwhile, SIA achieved an outstanding quarter by carefully calibrating its response to the pandemic and preparing itself for the pickup in demand. In a statement, SIA said," The SIA Group has proactively reviewed all aspects of our operations since the start of the pandemic, ensuring that the entire organisation is ready to rapidly respond to changes in the operating environment. Also Read: GST collections in July second highest-ever, climbs 28 pc year-on-year With travel demand picking up, the industry, in general, is finding itself in a situation where it is unable to hire and train workers fast enough after letting go thousands of workers during the pandemic. It is also unable to bring aircraft that was mothballed back into service fast enough. -PTC News