Singapore Airways Axes Vancouver Flights, Exits Canada

For no matter motive, evidently Singapore Airways simply can’t make service to Canada work…

Singapore Airways cuts Singapore to Vancouver route

Presently Singapore Airways’ solely flight to Canada is a nonstop flight from Singapore (SIN) to Vancouver (YVR), which is operated 3x weekly with an Airbus A350-900. Sadly for these in Canada, this route will quickly be lower. As famous by Primarily Miles, Singapore Airways has revealed that it is going to be suspending flights to Vancouver as of October 2023, because it “adjusts its capability in response to demand.”

Singapore Airways has lengthy struggled with profitably working flights to Canada:

• Till 2009, Singapore Airways operated a route from Singapore to Seoul to Vancouver; as soon as that route was ended, Singapore Airways didn’t fly to Canada for over a decade
• In 2021, Singapore Airways returned to Canada by including a cease to its present Singapore to Seattle route, because the airline operated on choose days from Singapore to Vancouver to Seattle to Vancouver to Singapore
• In 2022, Singapore Airways gave Vancouver its personal service, with a easy Singapore to Vancouver roundtrip

It’s anybody’s guess if Singapore Airways tries to return to Canada once more in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later. Following the present sample, perhaps we’ll see the airline do this service once more within the mid-2030s.

Why can’t Singapore Airways make Canada work?

Canada is an odd aviation market at instances. Canada’s authorities usually takes a protectionist method in blocking service from overseas carriers, so whereas the Gulf carriers would like to increase in Canada, they will’t. In the meantime Singapore Airways can fly to Canada, however can’t appear to make the economics work.

Vancouver is an extremely numerous metropolis, and a big share of the inhabitants has ties to numerous elements of Asia. Moreover, Vancouver is a fairly prosperous metropolis, with a number of wealth. You’d assume it will be simple to make a 3x weekly flight between Vancouver and Singapore work, particularly when you think about that Vancouver is an Air Canada hub, so Singapore Airways has connectivity (although with the early departure from Vancouver, identical day connections are restricted).

So, why can’t Singapore Airways make Vancouver work? I don’t have an excellent reply, however I do have a couple of ideas:

• The Canadian Greenback is considerably weaker than the US Greenback, and airfare out of Canada doesn’t essentially replicate that distinction in foreign money worth
• There are numerous Asian airways serving Canada, so for locations past Singapore, Singapore Airways faces a number of competitors for one cease service
• Extremely lengthy haul routes depend on numerous premium point-to-point demand, and I’d guess that (surprisingly) there’s not adequate premium demand between Vancouver and Singapore, or else this route wouldn’t be lower
• It’s additionally attainable that the route isn’t truly performing that horribly, however quite Singapore Airways feels the aircraft can extra profitably be utilized in one other market

Backside line

Singapore Airways will likely be ending its Singapore to Vancouver route as of October 2023. Singapore Airways solely returned to Canada for the primary time in over a decade in 2021. The airline first flew from Singapore to Vancouver as a part of a service to Seattle, after which in 2022 launched a standalone service to Vancouver. Now the route is being lower, with an announcement coming lower than a yr after launch.

What do you make of Singapore Airways’ struggles with the Canada market?