Slow start for Australia-Singapore travel bubble with discussions yet to start

Singapore Airlines is agitating for discussions with Australia about a travel bubble to help reopen the world.

Singapore Airlines flight coming into land at Melbourne Airport in April. Picture: David Crosling

Frustrated officials with Singapore Airlines have revealed discussions are yet to begin with Australian authorities about a quarantine-free travel bubble between the two countries.

Scott Morrison’s recent meeting with his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong raised the prospect of such a bubble being established, providing access to international students, business people and holiday-makers.

Speaking in Singapore, the Prime Minister said “there was nothing impeding Australia with getting on with the job of putting systems in place to enable such a bubble to emerge”.

But Singapore Airlines’ regional vice president Louis Arul said they were yet to start discussions with government and did not know what would be required of travellers.

“We’re not pressing the authorities for a timeline of when this might be done, we just want to start a discussion about what operational measures are necessary for a travel bubble, simply because that requires many people to come together to ensure it operates properly,” Mr Arul said.

“It’s not just the airline, it’s the ground-handling agents, the airports, border force and so on. Everybody needs to sit down and discuss how we want to manage operations in such a situation.”

He said a Singapore-Australia bubble would be different to the trans-Tasman bubble, in that there was likely to be an expectation travellers were Covid tested before flying, or even fully vaccinated.

“Because Singapore is a hub we will need some stringent measures to ensure we have only green flights operating into Australia,” Mr Arul said.

“There are multiple discussions to be had with the various airports and authorities in Australia so we’d like to get that started soon.”

Although Singapore Airlines continued to operate commercial flights in and out of Australia, the carrier was restricted to carrying as few as 30 passengers on aircraft built for 300 people.

Mr Arul said the airline was financially able to provide the services due to the strong demand for cargo. In April Singapore Airlines flew 10,764 passengers to and from Australia, and close to 12,000 tonnes of freight and mail.

“As long as cargo continues we should be able to sustain these flights in and out of Australia,” he said.

The airline was using its Boeing 787s, 777s and A350s for the flights, with its fleet of A380s currently grounded.

Apart from being less fuel-efficient, the superjumbos had significantly less capacity for freight, with the A380’s belly hold capable of carrying up to 8 tonnes, compared to up to 48 tonnes in a 777.

Despite the cloud over the future of A380s globally, Singapore Airlines remained committed to returning the popular aircraft to the skies once demand returned, and was in the process of completing cabin refurbishments for all but seven superjumbos.

The future of those aircraft remained unclear, with the airline believed to be considering stripping them down for spare parts, to reduce maintenance costs.

The seven A380s were among 45 aircraft being removed from Singapore’s fleet, as the airline geared up for a leaner post-Covid operation.

With no domestic market to service in Singapore, the carrier was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, losing $4.2 billion in the year to March 2021.

Mr Arul said as challenging as the last 15 months had been, there were still many hurdles left to overcome.

“The problem is this is a global pandemic but I think the problem is trying to be solved by local solutions,” he said.

“A global problem requires a global solution and unfortunately countries haven’t got to that stage where they can look at a global solution because they’re all dealing with their own local issues. That’s the situation we’re in now.”