Singapore Airlines to exit Canadian market in late 2023

Singapore Airlines will cease its direct flights to Vancouver International Airport (YVR) by October 2023, ending the carrier’s only route to Canada.

The airline made the announcement to exit the Canadian market in its 3rd Quarter FY2022/23 report, adding that the decision was made as the group “adjusts its capacity in response to demand.”

Singapore Airlines first launched the nonstop service from Singapore’s Changi Airport (SIN) to YVR airport in June 2022. Prior to that, the airline offered YVR as a stop in its SIN to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) route from December 2021 after a 12-year absence in Canada.

Since June 2022, the airline has flown direct from SIN to YVR three times weekly using its Airbus A350-900 fleet.

Singapore Airlines also announced that its low-cost subsidiary, Scoot, will be cutting flights to the Gold Coast Airport (OOL) in Australia from July 2023. The airline launched the route in July 2017 using its fleet of Boeing 787-9 until the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.

Flights to the Gold Coast resumed in February 2022 and are currently operating four times weekly.

The carrier said that at the start of the 2023 summer season, Scoot will expand its services to China with flight resumptions to Haikou, Nanning, Ningbo, Shenyang, and Xi’an, and increase frequencies to Athens, Langkawi, Manado and Perth as well as on fifth-freedom routes Taipei-Tokyo Narita and Taipei-Sapporo.

Fifth-freedom flights carry passengers between two countries that are different from the home base of the airline operating the flight.