Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday.
Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week.
That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul flights per week would rise from four to five, Lee said, adding that there would continue to be four weekly Singapore-Taiwan-Sapporo flights.
Photo courtesy of Scoot
Lee also said that the only route involving Taiwan that has not been resumed yet is Kaohsiung-Osaka, citing the company’s limited capacity. He expects this route to resume in 2025.
Scoot’s routes cover 15 countries and 72 destinations. The airline has resumed about 93 percent of the flights it flew before the pandemic and all routes are operating at more than 90 percent capacity, Lee said.
The demand for Scoot’s ScootPlus has exceeded expectations by 10 to 20 percent and long-haul flights to Berlin and Athens are usually fully loaded, Lee said.
As for the surge in ticket prices following the pandemic, Lee attributed this to revenge travel — the act of taking trips that could not be taken due to the pandemic — but expressed the belief that the price hike would ease this year as more services resume.
However, he added that due to inflation, ticket prices would still be higher than before the pandemic.
This story has been amended since it was first published.
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