Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines (SIA) and voted the World’s Best Long Haul Low-Cost Airline by SkyTrax in September 2021, has resumed three-times-weekly services between Phuket and Singapore from October 8, 2021. The route, which had been suspended since late March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is operated with Scoot’s Airbus A320-family aircraft.
Prior to COVID-19, Phuket was the second most popular international tourist destination in Thailand, hosting approximately 10 million foreign tourists each year . Low-cost carriers carried over 40 percent of international passengers in and out of the island, coined “the pearl of the Andaman”.
Amid a challenging time, Thailand launched the Sandbox scheme, making international travel possible. The Phuket Sandbox, the pilot destination of Thailand’s reopening, has already injected more than 1.634 billion baht into the economy. Scoot’s flight resumption between Phuket and Singapore will draw even more visitors to the Sandbox as Thai authorities gear up towards gradually reopening more provinces.
Mr. Calvin Chan, Scoot’s Chief Commercial Officer, said, “Thailand is one of Scoot’s key growth markets, and we are encouraged by the positive steps being taken to gradually reopen borders safely. Phuket has always been one of the top holiday destinations for travellers around the world, and we are excited to resume services to the island. Throughout the pandemic, Scoot has remained nimble in adjusting our network according to evolving developments, as well as implementing measures to safeguard the health of our customers and crew. As travel starts to resume, we will continue to deliver the highest standards to our customers, ensuring peace of mind when flying with Scoot.”
Since the start of COVID-19, Scoot has enhanced procedures and implemented measures across the customer journey, ranging from increased cleaning and distancing, deploying contactless check-in and inflight ordering, and trialling of digital pre-departure test verification tools amongst other initiatives. Scoot’s top-in-class health and safety measures have made it the world’s first low-cost carrier to attain the highest ratings for both the APEX Health Safety powered by SimpliFlying and SkyTrax COVID-19 Airline Safety Rating audits. Scoot was also recently crowned the World’s Best Long Haul Low-Cost airline by SkyTrax in the 2021 World Airline Awards.
Scoot has been growing its capacity and resuming selected services in a calibrated manner. To date, Scoot has resumed services to 25 out of 68 destinations. Currently, Scoot is operating 11-times-weekly services between Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) and Singapore.
Flight Schedule for Phuket-Singapore* services (Effective 8 October 2021)
Sector Flight No. Departure Arrival Frequency
Phuket – Singapore TR653 2040 2335 Tue, Fri, Sat
Singapore – Phuket TR652 1910 2000 Tue, Fri, Sat
* All times listed in local. Schedules are subject to changes and regulatory approval.
