Hong Kong travel bubble: Singapore Airlines to use smaller aircraft when flights begin

The airline will not use the 441-seater A380, given government ‘conservatism’ on the number of travellers who don’t need to serve quarantine

Singapore Airlines’ CEO says the travel bubble could be ‘a very good pilot’ for how to safely resume international travel

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Singapore’s national carrier will use smaller aircraft in a bid to better control travel numbers. Photo: EPA

Published: 3:16pm, 9 Nov 2020Updated: 4:07pm, 9 Nov 2020

Singapore Airlines will not use its largest aircraft for the imminent Singapore-Hong Kong travel bubble as both governments are taking a conservative approach to the number of travellers that can enter both cities without having to serve quarantine.

Instead of using the Airbus A380 which can seat 441 passengers, Singapore’s national carrier will use smaller aircraft, it said at a briefing on Monday with reporters and analysts.

“There is some level of conservatism … [so] I think the ability to put our biggest passenger aircraft onto that bubble route, I think you can ensure that will not be the case,” said Singapore Airlines’ executive vice-president of commercial Lee Lik Hsin. “We’ll be using one of our smaller aircraft.”

The Airbus A380 plane won’t be used in the travel bubble. Photo: AFP

CEO Goh Choon Phong said that while this was due to the travel bubble “being experimental”, he hoped it could be “a very good pilot” for how to safely resume international travel.

The briefing was held three days after Singapore Airlines released its FY20/21 first half results, when it posted a net loss of S$3.5 billion (US$2.6 billion).