SIA extends Dubai halt to end-April, adds capacity to London and Melbourne

[SINGAPORE] Singapore Airlines on Friday (Mar 20) extended the cancellation of its flights between the city-state and Dubai to the end of April, citing escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The cancellations of the SQ494 and SQ495 flights between Singapore and Dubai had previously been extended to Mar 28, from Mar 15 originally.

Despite the pullback in the Middle East, the airline said it is shifting aircraft capacity to capture rising travel demand for its London and Melbourne routes for the northern summer season (Mar 29 to Oct 24).

For London, the flag carrier will add the new flights SQ314 and SQ313 between Changi and Gatwick Airport using Airbus A350 jets.

This will be a thrice-weekly service from Mar 31 to Jul 2, rising to daily from Jul 3 to Aug 29, before reverting to three times a week from Sep 1 to Oct 24.

Combined with its existing Heathrow operations, the carrier will fly to the UK capital up to six times a day.

In the Pacific, the airline is increasing its seat capacity to Australia. From Mar 29 to Oct 24, it will deploy its flagship Airbus A380 superjumbo to replace a Boeing 777-300ER on the SQ237 and SQ228 flights between Singapore and Melbourne.

The shift to the double-decker Airbus provides 471 seats per flight, including six first-class suites, to meet increased passenger volume.

This is compared with 264 seats and four first-class seats on the single-deck Boeing.

Shares of SIA rose 0.2 per cent to close S$0.01 higher at S$6.60 on Friday, before the announcement.