Singapore Airlines has announced an expanded schedule for June and July 2020, with 500 new flights to be added to 11 more cities.

SIA's expanded June & July schedule includes:

• Amsterdam (AMS)
• Auckland (AKL)
• Barcelona (BCN)
• Brisbane (BNE)
• Cebu (CEB- served by SilkAir)
• Christchurch (CHC)
• Copenhagen (CPH)
• Hong Kong (HKG)
• Medan (KNO- served by SilkAir)
• Melbourne (MEL)
• Osaka (KIX)

This means that SIA, SilkAir and Scoot will now fly to a combined 33 destinations.

This is up from 17 just a month ago.

All flights are subject to regulatory approvals, and schedules are subjected to changes.

However, this does not mean leisure travel here is back up -- just that people worldwide are travelling again, and most likely for business and other critical purposes -- and SIA will be providing the flights.

SIA has facilitated the repatriation of individuals stuck outside their home countries, as well as facilitate other essential travel between Europe and Asia or Australia.

Singapore as transit hub

The flights are needed as up to a third of SIA passengers connect through Singapore.

With the transit passenger ban lifting worldwide, there’s an opportunity to serve this market again.

Implications

Pilots, cabin crew and other staff of Singapore Airlines can look forward to work again as personnel are recalled from involuntary furloughs.

Pilots can then clock flight time required to maintain their certification.

Changi Airport and its staff can go back to work as passengers arrive in transit to other destinations worldwide.

Airlines and authorities can also experiment with policies and procedures in a post-Covid-19 world using a small passenger size for trials initially.

Impact still felt

But even with flights coming back, this still represents a 94 percent cut in passenger capacity compared to what was originally scheduled for June and July 2020.

Most flights now are for cargo.

A total of just 325 flights were scheduled for the whole month of May, representing a capacity cut of 96 percent.

SIA is operating a skeleton network to provide essential connectivity between Singapore and 15 other cities worldwide.

The airline posted its first-ever annual loss and went into survival mode, streamlining staff and deferring aircraft deliveries.

The full details for the June and July flight schedules can be found in the links below, with any flight not listed understood to be cancelled.

• South East Asia
• North Asia
• South West Pacific
• Europe
• USA

Cancellation policy

Passengers who have their flights cancelled are entitled to a 100 percent refund in cash or a 100 percent refund in flight credits with a $75 to $500 bonus.

Those whose flights have not been cancelled but don’t feel like travelling might still be eligible for a refund so long as the ticket was issued on or before March 15, 2020, with travel dates up to July 31, 2020.

If the travel date is from Aug. 1, 2020, you can adopt a wait and see approach.

Singapore Airlines reviews its refund policy each month based on the prevailing conditions.

If it’s still not possible to travel by then without being quarantined or isolated, a refund will likely be offered provided the ticket was issued on or before March 15, 2020.

Singapore Airlines’ full Covid-19 travel waiver policy can be viewed here.