Singapore Airlines announces schedule through to October 2024

Singapore Airlines has finalised its flight schedules including days of operation and aircraft type allocation across its network for the upcoming summer travel season, which means we now have a firm idea of where and when the carrier will be flying through to the end of October 2024.

Although flights for this period were already loaded for some time, many frequencies and aircraft types in particular were based on a ‘copy-paste’ of the previous season’s schedules, and therefore weren’t necessarily accurate, until now.

The Airbus A380 returns to Frankfurt this summer, though this comes at the expense of Auckland and Tokyo, as we recently reported.

There are also new routes to Brussels from April 2024 and to London Gatwick from June 2024.

Some frequency reductions are planned, however, including a regular seasonal halving of Auckland flights from twice daily to daily, and a slimmed-down schedule to both Phuket and Johannesburg.

There’s also uncertainty for at least three China routes, with no services loaded once again for Chongqing, Shenzhen and Xiamen flights after their current planned stints.

The overall passenger network will stand at 74 destinations for the mainline carrier next summer, potentially plus these three China routes if they get approved, with around 81% of pre-COVID capacity by flight volumes restored.

Headline figures

In total Singapore Airlines will fly over 2,150 passenger flights per week by April 2024, its highest total since schedules were slashed in April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That’s around 81% of the pre-pandemic monthly total operated on the combined SilkAir / SIA network in January 2020. SilkAir was fully merged into SIA in May 2021.

Singapore Airlines made a wide-ranging announcement of its summer 2024 route changes way back in August last year.

The problem with these is that they are way too far in advance to end up being fully accurate, so apart from the return of Airbus A380s on the carrier’s Frankfurt route, we didn’t really report on the other route changes at the time.

Now that the northern summer 2024 schedule has been confirmed, and before we get into the full route list, here’s a more accurate summary of the most significant changes in store.

Major changes: Short- and medium-haul routes

• Ahmedabad will increase from 5 times weekly to daily from 2nd September 2024, which is the same as SIA stated.
• Beijing was supposed to increase from 2 times daily to 3 times daily from 1st May 2024 according to SIA, but the actual increase will be to 18 per week from 4th June 2024, then finally to 21 per week (3 daily) from 3rd August 2024.
• Da Nang will increase from 11 times weekly to 14 times weekly from 1st July 2024, which is the same as SIA stated.
• Dhaka was supposed to increase from daily to 9 times weekly from 31st March 2024 according to SIA, but this increase actually took effect nearly three months early, on 4th January 2024.
• Hong Kong was supposed to increase from 5 times daily to 6 times daily from 1st August 2024 according to SIA, but the actual increase will happen four months earlier, from 31st March 2024.
• Kuala Lumpur will increase from 47 times weekly to 54 times weekly from 31st March 2024, which is the same as SIA stated, however further proposed increases to 59 times weekly from June 2024 and to 66 times weekly from August 2024 have not materialised.
• Male was supposed to upgauge to the Airbus A350 Medium Haul on one of two daily flights (SQ432/433) from 31st March 2024, but there was actually an upgauge to Airbus A350 Long Haul three days per week on this service in late October 2023. It will shift to daily Airbus A350 Medium Haul operation from 31st March 2024 as promised, for twice daily service with the type in total.
• Shanghai will increase from 4 to 5 times daily from 31st March 2024, which is the same as SIA stated.
• Tokyo Haneda was supposed to receive a 4th daily flight from 1st September 2024 according to SIA, but this additional service has been postponed until the start of the northern winter season on 27th October 2024.
• Yangon will increase from daily to 10 times weekly from 2nd August 2024, which is the same as SIA stated, however the initial increase to daily operation on this route is now only effective from 31st March 2024.

Major changes: Long-haul routes

• Barcelona will once again have twice weekly non-stop service this summer, from 2nd June 2024, but this is now a permanent addition, rather than a seasonal service as it has been in previous years.
• Cairns flights will reduce from 5 times weekly to 4 times weekly from 31st March 2024, with equipment upgauge from Boeing 737-8 MAX to the Airbus A350 Medium Haul, which is the same as SIA stated.
• Copenhagen will increase from 5 times weekly to daily from 1st July 2024, which is the same as SIA stated.
• Darwin will increase from 5 times weekly to daily from 31st March 2024, which is the same as SIA stated.
• Dubai was supposed to increase from daily to 11 times weekly from 31st March 2024 according to SIA, but the actual increase is now programmed from 3rd August 2024. While the additional flights SQ496/497 are loaded in GDS, they are not currently available for reservation.
• Frankfurt will reduce from 17 times weekly to 14 times weekly from 31st March 2024, however the SQ326/325 service will upgauge from the Airbus A350 Long Haul to the Airbus A380, as SIA stated.
• Houston via Manchester will increase from 3 times weekly to 5 times weekly from 31st March 2024, which is the same as SIA stated. Overall Manchester frequencies (5/wk) are unaffected, due to the cessation of twice weekly terminator service, to coincide with this increase.
• Melbourne will increase from 4 times daily to 5 times daily from 26th May 2024, which is the same as SIA stated.
• Milan will retain daily service from Singapore, but “fifth freedom” flights between Milan and Barcelona will reduce from 5 times weekly to 3 times weekly from June 2024.
• Perth will increase from 24 times weekly to 4 times daily (28 times weekly) from 31st March 2024, which is the same as SIA stated.
• Seattle will increase from 3 times weekly to 4 times weekly from 2nd June 2024, which is the same as SIA stated.

Singapore Airlines schedule

Here’s how the flight frequencies and aircraft types on the short-haul and Asia network will look during the upcoming season, which starts on 31st March 2024 and runs through to 26th October 2024.

* Penang reduces to 28/wk (4 daily) during August and September 2024
The latest updated schedules including days of operation are available at the Singapore Airlines website.

Here’s how the long-haul network looks during the summer 2024 season.

The latest updated schedules including days of operation are available at the Singapore Airlines website.

China routes are subject to change

Singapore Airlines seems to be having some issues with route approvals to and from some cities in China, as we recently noted following some temporary service suspensions then restarts.

Based on current schedules, this will see flights to Xiamen cease in late January and those to Chongqing and Shenzhen in late March.

Meanwhile, Chengdu flights look set to reduce from three times weekly to just once weekly in the upcoming summer season.

These schedules are likely to change, subject to route approvals from the authorities.

We have therefore still included all these routes in the table above, even the ones ‘technically’ ending again in late March, in anticipation of further updates in the coming weeks.

Routes that haven’t returned to pre-COVID frequencies

The following cities still won’t have pre-COVID flight frequencies as Singapore Airlines routes during the summer 2024 season, compared to the summer 2019 season (SIA and SilkAir combined).

While there are likely to be some changes for the China routes following regulatory approvals as noted above, there are still some surprises here, including partial frequencies to Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Jakarta still has only two-thirds of its pre-COVID flight frequencies restored, while the popular miles option between Singapore and Istanbul is still missing one of its five weekly services.

“Fifth freedom” routes

Singapore Airlines will continue to operate four “fifth freedom” routes during the summer 2024 season, on which it has traffic rights to sell tickets to passengers travelling solely between these foreign cities.

• Frankfurt to New York JFK (Boeing 777-300ER)
• Manchester to Houston (Airbus A350 Long Haul)
• Milan to Barcelona (Airbus A350 Long Haul)
• Tokyo to Los Angeles (Boeing 777-300ER)

Note that it is not possible to buy or redeem tickets to travel solely on the following Singapore Airlines routes:

• Johannesburg to Cape Town
• Cape Town to Johannesburg

On these flights, you must be travelling to or from Singapore.

SIA still has not programmed a return for its Singapore – Hong Kong – San Francisco flights since these were suspended in January 2022, when Hong Kong banned transit passengers, in another of its ever-changing policies during the pandemic era.

Which routes are left?

With 77 destinations across the Singapore Airlines and former SilkAir network now reinstated, aside from the confusion on three China routes, it’s interesting to consider which cities or airports are still to be added to the list (or not, as the case may be).

Here’s the latest rundown.

Singapore Airlines / SilkAir Routes
Pending Reinstatement

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Singapore Airlines schedules get a couple of ‘big updates’ per year, and this is one of them, with flight frequencies and aircraft types confirmed for the northern summer season from late March 2024 to late October 2024.

For most routes it’s ‘status quo’, but there are reductions for the likes of Phuket, Siem Reap and Johannesburg, while on the flip side it’s good to see increases in store for places like Hong Kong, Perth, Rome and Melbourne.

There are also two new routes to look forward to this summer – Brussels and London Gatwick – strengthening SIA’s Europe network to beyond pre-COVID levels.

In the case of four cities in China, we do expect some further schedule updates for the summer season to be in the pipeline, subject to regulatory approvals.

We will be updating our Business Class Seats by Route and First Class Seats by Route guides in the coming days with the new data through to the end of October 2024, based on the latest aircraft assignments on the network.

If you are booking flights beyond 26th October 2024, do be aware that next winter’s schedule is still somewhat provisional, especially as far as aircraft types are concerned. We’ll have more firm news on the schedule for that season in around July this year.

(Cover Photo: Plane’s Portrait Aviation Media / Malcolm Lu)