Singapore airport deals with flight problems

Changi Airport in Singapore plans to reschedule some of its flights in the next few days. The country has a 4 day holiday coming up, now that authorities have scrapped all tests for vaccinated people, and this is expected to be a very busy time for travel. A report today says the airport also has yet to approve some additional flight applications for next week as it faces a labour shortage.

The report says there are concerns that more flights could lead to poorer passenger service, and delays in baggage collection. A spokesperson for the Changi Airport Group told Business Times that there will be re-timing of a very small number of flights this weekend “to spread the flights apart during the extremely high peak periods”.

The number of foreign workers in Singapore has dropped due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the reopening of the country’s economy is now causing a strain on the tight labour market. There are also now stricter hiring rules. At the same time, Singapore wants to bring back travellers, since countries like Hong Kong are still imposing strict Covid-19 restrictions.

According to a Bloomberg report, Singapore has jumped ahead of its neighbours in ditching travel restrictions and adopting a general “living with Covid” policy. An increase in Google searches for Singapore has been reported among travellers in Malaysia, along with Indonesia, India, and Australia.

SOURCE: Bloomberg News