The Straits Times has reported that Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its budget arm, Scoot, will ramp up flights to various Asian cities after Qantas announced that its Singapore-based low-cost carrier, Jetstar Asia will cease operations on July 31, citing rising costs and competition
Jetstar Asia operates about 180 weekly services at Changi Airport and carried about 2.3 million passengers in 2024, accounting for around 3 per cent of the airport’s total traffic.
Changi Airport Group (CAG) had said that of the 16 routes affected by Jetstar Asia’s closure, 12 are served by 18 other airlines offering more than 1,000 weekly services, and the airport operator would actively engage other airlines to fill the gap where additional capacity is needed.
Industry analysts had said that Jetstar Asia’s exit presents an opportunity for other carriers like Scoot to expand and take over its landing and take-off slots, especially those during morning and evening peak hours.
Scoot to take over flights vacated by Jetstar
To fill the gap, Scoot plans to launch new flights to Okinawa in Japan and Labuan Bajo in Indonesia – both destinations that Jetstar Asia serves exclusively from Changi Airport. Labuan Bajo is the gateway to Komodo National Park of which its famous residents are the Komodo dragon.
Scoot plans to launch new services to Okinawa four times a week and Labuan Bajo twice weekly. It will also start daily flights to the Indonesian city of Medan. If approved, these three services will be launched between October 2025 and March 2026.
Scoot also plans to increase flights to Bangkok in August, to 39 services per week, up from the current 35. This will go up to 42 flights a week from Oct 26.
No announcement has been made yet on whether other airlines will step in to restore services from Singapore to Broome in Australia and Wuxi in China which were served only by Jetstar.
SIA and Scoot to increase flights to Asian destinations
According to Aeroroutes, a website that tracks airline schedule changes, Jetstar Asia will cancel all its flights to Krabi, Medan and Penang. It will also start cutting flights to Bali, Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Phuket from June 16.
From August, Scoot will fly 28 times a week to Penang, up from 21 times a week now. For the Singapore-Manila route, SIA will increase its flights from 28 to 35 per week.
Meanwhile, Scoot will continue to fly to Manila 14 times weekly, but half of these flights will use larger Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets, which can seat more than 300 passengers. This is instead of its smaller narrow-body Airbus A320 and A321 planes, which can seat between 180 and 236 people.
Scoot will also be increasing its weekly flights to Clark in the Philippines from five to seven. Jetstar Asia had suspended its Singapore-Clark flights in May.
During this period, SIA plans to add three more flights to Colombo in Sri Lanka, up from seven a week today, and seven more flights to Jakarta, up from 63 a week now. For its Phuket flights, SIA plans to increase its frequency from 30 to 35 times a week, to 42 times a week. It will also use larger aircraft on more of its flights to Bali.
Scoot also plans to operate more flights to Bali, Jakarta, Phuket, and Surabaya in Indonesia for the period between Oct 26, 2025, and March 28, 2026.
Between October 26, 2025, and March 28, 2026, another five cities in Asia will also receive more SIA or Scoot flights.
SIA Group to create job opportunities for affected Jetstar Asia staff
CNA.com also reported that the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group said it will create opportunities across its airlines for Jetstar staff who will be retrenched, including positions for about 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew.
The more than 500 retrenched Jetstar staff will each receive four weeks’ salary for every year they have worked with the company. They will also receive a bonus payment for the financial year of 2025, a special thank you payment and continued access to staff travel benefits for a period equivalent to their tenure.
