Singapore Airlines announced today that it will be temporarily reducing services across its network due to weak demand arising from the Covid-19 outbreak.

Singapore Airlines’ capacity cuts

Make no mistake, these are some serious capacity cuts. All in all, we’re seeing slightly under 700 flight cancellations from now till end May. I attempted to map the extent of the cancellations below.

Tokyo and Seoul are the hardest hit, with 82 and 78 cancellations respectively. After that comes Taipei and London, with 56 and 44 cancellations. There are some routes that have completely escaped the chop, however, like Istanbul, Newark, and Manila.

Here’s the details on the affected flights and dates.

To the USA

To Europe

To Japan, South Korea, Taiwan

To Australia and New Zealand

To Africa and West Asia

To Southeast Asia

What happens if my flight has been cancelled?

If your flight has been cancelled, Singapore Airlines will be reaching out to assist with re-accommodation, changes, or refunds. All of these will presumably be done free-of-charge.

Where possible, you should be accommodated on another Singapore Airlines flight on the same day. For example, if you were scheduled to fly on SQ26 to Frankfurt on 10 May, you may be placed on SQ326 instead. In a situation where there is only a single Singapore Airlines flight that day, you may be placed on a different carrier in the same cabin. This is where it gets a bit more dicey, because of the obvious pricing differential between Singapore Airlines and its competitors. I imagine the CSOs will be well-briefed on the alternative options to offer, so hear them out and make a decision.

On a separate note, Spontaneous Escapes for March were announced yesterday, and you may already have locked in some redemptions. If your flight has been cancelled, you’ll be able to receive a full refund of the miles notwithstanding the usual “no cancellations” policy governing Spontaneous Escapes. You can also request that the dates be moved, subject to Saver availability.

Conclusion

The airline industry is one of the hardest hit by pandemics, and it’s unsurprising to see Singapore Airlines take steps to stem the bleeding.

If you were affected by the flight cancellations, please sound out below. What alternative options were you presented? What will you be taking?