Singapore Airlines plans to suspend its four weekly flights to Vancouver as of October 23 to better match capacity with demand, the company has announced.
The airline relaunched non-stop seasonal service between its Changi Airport base in the island nation and Vancouver International Airport in late 2021 after having suspended flights to Vancouver for the previous 12 years.
It then made those flights year-round in 2022.
The airline had originally flown thrice weekly between Singapore and Vancouver, using Seoul, Korea, as a stop-over. In 2007, it asked the Canadian government for permission to fly that route daily, but because of the two countries' air agreement, domestic airlines had to agree to give Singapore Airlines that permission.
Air Canada rejected the request because Singapore Airlines' extra flights on the Vancouver-Seoul leg of the journey would have cut into Air Canada's business, Air Canada confirmed to BIV in 2013.
Singapore Airlines cited flagging demand for the flights as a reason to retreat from the Vancouver market. This is despite the temporary suspension of many mainland Chinese carriers out of Vancouver due to lingering COVID-19 restrictions.
One other non-stop flight between Vancouver and Southeast Asia at the moment is Air Canada's seasonal flights to Bangkok. Those four flights per week are set to end on April 17.
The other non-stop flights to Southeast Asia are the daily Philippine Airlines flights to Manila.
