Scoot to add 6 more Taipei-northeast Asia flights per week from April

Taipei, March 21 (CNA) Scoot will offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said Thursday.

Lee Yong Sin (李榮新), vice president of sales for the Singapore-based low-cost carrier, said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan will increase from 15 to 21 each week.

That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week will increase from seven to 12, and there will be five Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul flights per week, a rise from the current four offered, Lee said.

He added that there will continue to be four weekly Singapore-Taiwan-Sapporo flights.

Lee explained that the only route involving Taiwan that Scoot has not yet resumed is Kaohsiung-Osaka, citing the company's limited capacity. He expects this route to resume in 2025.

According to Lee, Scoot's routes cover 15 countries and 72 destinations, and the airline has resumed approximately 93 percent of its flights that flew pre-pandemic. All routes are operating at over 90 percent capacity.

The demand for Scoot's premium economy has exceeded expectations by 10-20 percent, and long-haul flights to Berlin and Athens are usually fully loaded, Lee said.

Regarding the surge in ticket prices following the pandemic, Lee attributed this to revenge travel -- the act of taking a trip that wasn't able to happen due to the pandemic -- but expressed the belief that the price hike would ease this year as more services resume.

However, Lee added that due to inflation, ticket prices would still be higher than before the pandemic.