Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group and budget carrier Jetstar Asia will fly to more destinations and at a slightly increased frequency as the gradual recovery of the carriers continues.

Scoot, the budget arm of SIA Group, on Tuesday said it will restart flights to Tokyo, Osaka, Palembang, Pekanbaru and Yogyakarta this month, adding these to the 13 locations it was flying to last month.

Meanwhile, Jetstar Asia said on Monday it will restart flights to Phnom Penh, Cambodia on September 18.

SIA last week said it will begin adding more flights to cities such as Jakarta, London and Sydney in the next three months. It will also restart flights to Surabaya in Indonesia this month.

With the gradual increase in flights, SIA Group’s passenger capacity will reach about 11 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of November.

In comparison, it had been operating at seven per cent of its pre-Covid-19 capacity last month.

Aviation analyst Shukor Yusof from Malaysian-based Endau Analytics Sdn Bhd said despite the increased flights, the outlook for airlines remained bleak and they would have to endure the situation for a while longer.

He said: “While it won’t help the bottom line, any incremental rise, however small, represents a psychological uplift for staff and passengers.”

The International Air Transport Association has said demand for air travel is unlikely to return to the levels before the pandemic until 2024.

In the meantime, beyond increasing flights, the local carriers have also announced new initiatives to retain customers.

SIA on Tuesday said it will tweak its loyalty schemes to allow passengers to more easily retain their loyalty status.

Jetstar Asia on Monday said it will launch a programme to offer passengers additional assurances about their safety while flying.

These include measures such as giving each passenger a sanitising wipe, sequenced boarding and cleaning of planes during flights.

THE STRAITS TIMES (SINGAPORE)/ASIA NEWS NETWORK