Coronavirus: Singapore leads the way as international air travel in Asia picks up pace

By January, Singapore is poised to reach 84 per cent of the weekly flights to Europe as it had in March last year

While there’s some renewed optimism, the reopening could be short-lived as Covid-19 cases and mutations continue to flare

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By January, Singapore is poised to reach 84 per cent of the weekly flights to Europe as it had in March 2020. Photo: dpa

Published: 9:34am, 23 Oct 2021Updated: 9:37am, 23 Oct 2021

Airlines in Asia are bringing back international capacity as the region gradually follows North America and Europe in reopening borders, led by Singapore, whose economy depends on open access.

By January, Singapore is poised to reach 84 per cent of the weekly flights to Europe as it had in March last year, before the clampdown on travel. And there’ll be 1,519 flights from the financial hub to elsewhere in Asia, compared with only 194 in May 2020, data from aviation analytics firm Cirium show.

Australia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are among others ditching Covid-zero policies and announcing plans to allow fully vaccinated visitors from certain places to enter without having to quarantine. That’s inevitably resulted in a significant shift in airline schedules in the coming months.

“Singapore is leading the way here,” said Gary Bowerman, director of travel and tourism research firm Check-in Asia. “Countries in the region have to open up because almost two years without travel of all forms, economically it’s just not viable to stay closed.”

Compared with air travel in the US and Europe, international traffic volume is still thin in the Asia-Pacific region, given that mainland China and Hong Kong remain closed off as they stick rigidly to a strategy of keeping Covid out.