Singapore Airlines has suspended many of its flights to Europe as it moves to halve capacity to the end of April in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The changes came as Star Alliance partner United Airlines revealed it was going to reduce capacity 60 percent, including a 42 percent cut across the US and Canada and an 85 percent reduction in international flights.
This would see the US carrier operate just 45 daily flights across the Atlantic, Pacific and Latin America in April.
Destinations include Sydney, Melbourne, Tel Aviv, London-Heathrow, Mumbai, New Dehli, Osaka, Frankfurt, Singapore, Tokyo, Mexico City and Sao Paulo.
However, neither of the capacity cuts appeared to take into account the decision by the European Union to ban most foreigners for 30 days.
In Australia, the Singapore Airlines cuts at this stage will likely see flights to Melbourne, Sydney and Perth reduced to daily and services to Brisbane reduced to four times weekly. Flights to Cairns, Canberra, Adelaide and Darwin will not operate in April.
The SIA changes come after travel restrictions are being ramped up worldwide. Singapore itself this week expanded travel restrictions to issue 14-day stay home notices to travelers who had visited ASEAN countries, the UK, Japan and Switzerland.
The airline warned that the growing scale of the border controls globally and its deepening impact on air travel meant it was likely to make further cuts to its capacity.
Airlines throughout the world have been drastically slashing capacity in response to the crisis and a number of governments, including Australia, have urged their residents to return home as international connectivity declines.
Singapore partners Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia have also announced big cuts and Virgin has suspended its international operations.
READ: Virgin Australia suspends international flying, halves domestic capacity.
“We have lost a large amount of our traffic in a very short time, and it will not be viable for us to maintain our current network,’’ SIA chief executive Goh Choon Phong said.
“Make no mistake – we expect the pace of this deterioration to accelerate. The SIA Group must be prepared for a prolonged period of difficulty.”
Like many airlines, SIA is taking steps to build up liquidity.
It is also consulting with unions again as it urgently takes steps to further cut costs and said it would announce additional measures “when they had been firmed up”.
The airline is offering fare waivers and is automatically converting tickets for flights that are canceled into an open ticket for travel up to March 31, 2021.
It said affected customers did not need to contact SIA directly but could provide their details in a form found at https://www.singaporeair.com/request.form when their new travel plans had been firmed up.
Customer service agents would then contact them.
In other airline news, American Airlines said it had had changed food procedures at some of its lounges and closed a number of them due to falling demand.
Admirals Club lounges in Paris , Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires and the Flagship Lounge in London have been temporarily closed. The London Heathrow Admirals Club will remain open with reduced hours.
