The CEO of Scoot (TR, Singapore Changi) says the airline will stop operating its A320-200s by the end of 2025 and instead utilize its growing A320-200neo and B787 fleets, according to a CAPA Centre for Aviation report.
Citing CEO Leslie Thng from a media briefing at the recent Singapore Air Show, the report says Scoot is phasing out its older A320ceo as new aircraft arrive. Scoot presently has twenty-four A320-200s with an average age of 10.7 years. The latest Airbus order data shows that the airline has twelve A320-200Ns and six A321-200Ns on order. The airline also has three B787-8s and four B787-9s on order with Boeing.
Scoot's available seat capacity is currently tracking around 95% of pre-pandemic levels and Thng expects the low-cost carrier to better its 2019 numbers this year. He says the current aircraft orders are enough to accommodate planned future network growth and its planned 2023 aircraft deliveries are "on target." Last last month, Scoot also signed an LOI to lease nine E190-E2s from Azorra to assist its push into markets around Southeast Asia too small for either the A320neo or B787s.
Meanwhile, the airline is also exiting some markets to redeploy existing capacity elsewhere. Twelve months after recommencing flights, Scoot has confirmed it will quit the Gold Coast Coolangatta - Singapore route in July 2023, saying it is adjusting capacity and optimizing resources in response to demand. That demand appears to be coming out of China and Japan where the airline plans to relaunch routes and upgrade frequencies on existing routes over the IATA 2023 Northern Summer.
“Scoot has been anticipating the return of travel to and from China and we will scale up operations to meet the demand from this sizeable market,” said Thng. “We will also ramp up frequencies to other popular summer destinations as customers continue to seek to travel."
