Singapore Airlines and its budget carrier Scoot will launch new routes and increase existing flight frequencies beginning in August, a spokesperson said, filling gaps left by the exit of Qantas Airways’s Jetstar Asia.
Scoot will start flights to Okinawa in Japan as well as Medan and Labuan Bajo in Indonesia from October. Between Scoot and Singapore Airlines, the group will also ramp up the number of weekly services to nine other destinations across Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines through the 2025 northern winter season, subject to regulatory approval.
Jetstar Asia said earlier this week that it will stop operating on July 31, resulting in the loss of some 500 jobs but freeing up as much as A$500 million in capital to fund Qantas’s fleet renewal program. Rising operational costs across the business, including higher fees imposed by Singapore’s Changi Airport, weakened Jetstar Asia’s ability to offer low fares while reaping a profit.
The Singapore Airlines group said it’s working closely with Jetstar Asia and Singapore’s National Trades Union Congress to explore employment opportunities for Jetstar Asia staff.
The island’s flag carrier hasn’t announced flights to Broome in Australia’s west and Wuxi in China, two other routes that were operated exclusively by Jetstar Asia. Scoot is however “in an advantageous position to capture the demand left by Jetstar” due to significant overlap in the two airlines’ routes, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Zhu said, noting that Jetstar Asia’s share of seats out of Singapore stood at 4% in the first half.
The bulk of those will likely be won by Scoot, which commanded 16% of seats in the same period. “It will also have a material uplift on the operating performance” of Singapore Airlines in the second half, Zhu said.
See also: Qantas to close Jetstar Asia, frees up capital for new fleet
Jetstar Asia operates around 180 weekly services at Changi and carried about 2.3 million passengers in 2024.
Despite reporting record revenue of $19.5 billion and a higher-than-expected profit last year, Singapore Airlines has warned that the challenging global operating environment may hurt demand for passenger and cargo flights.
