Singapore Air adds Asia flights, trims some US services in rejig

Singapore Airlines will add flights to East and Southeast Asia from early next year and trim some US services as it tweaks routes and plane allocations to get a head start over rivals as nations ease travel restrictions. The city-state’s flag carrier will resume flights to Busan in South Korea and increase services on Airbus SE A380 superjumbos to Australia, it said in an exchange filing Tuesday. It will also operate fewer services to Los Angeles, Houston and Seattle, and fly a Boeing Co. 777 to New York, instead of an A380. While the Asia-Pacific region in general has been slower than the rest of the world to open up after the pandemic, places like Singapore and Australia have largely thrown off the shackles, encouraging airlines to tap travel-hungry tourists and business executives. China, however, one of the world’s biggest aviation markets, remains largely off limits due to virus restrictions, and airlines are adjusting their capacity and fleets accordingly. Singapore Air will now operate the A380 to Melbourne and add a second daily service on the world’s largest passenger plane to Sydney. It also plans to operate the larger plane to newly opened Hong Kong from March, bringing Singapore Air’s daily services between the two financial hubs to four round trips.<br/>