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For the week starting December 21, 2020, the number of scheduled flights in Singapore was down by percent compared to the same week in December 2019. The Covid-19 pandemic saw countries going into lockdowns and closing their borders, thereby limiting global travel.

Pandemic brought Singapore’s flight traffic to a standstill

The coronavirus outbreak significantly impacted the aviation industry, as travel restrictions has resulted in flight cancellations all over the world, with the Asia Pacific region being one of the worst hit. For Singapore, the number of direct flights had been reduced to just ** cities, compared with *** before the pandemic. This had resulted in the suspension of operations in two terminals, severely impacting air traffic in Singapore in comparison to other major cities.

As travel restrictions started to ease, fast lanes arrangements have been established since June 2020 to facilitate essential business and official travel between Singapore and Brunei, Japan, Mainland China, Malaysia, and the Republic of Korea. Even though some countries started to recover as the coronavirus spread started being contained, the desired level of recovery for the aviation industry may take at least several quarters or even years.

Boosting Singapore’s connectivity with non-stop flights

Prior to the pandemic, Singapore has been leveraging on both its geographical and strategical position to harness traffic between South and Southeast Asia, as well as connect investor markets like the US and EU to Southeast Asia. In the wake of growing traffic, particularly within Asia, the route between Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Singapore Changi Airport was ranked as the busiest international route of 2019, with * flights. In the same year, Scoot launched non-stop flights operating **** days a week from Changi Airport to Changsha and Kunming – important centers of manufacturing and innovation in China.