Singapore Airlines is hiring staff in New Zealand as it works towards increasing service to the country.
As New Zealand opens up to vaccinated longhaul passengers from May 2, Singapore Airlines' general manager here, George Robertson, says his airline is thrilled and looking forward to some "meaningful" passenger loads.
The airline has been flying to this country for 45 years and during the pandemic has kept at least daily flights of passengers and cargo between Singapore and Auckland and Christchurch.
Of overseas-owned airlines it has been the biggest operator into New Zealand during the pandemic.
At present it's flying 10 passenger flights a week into Auckland and four into Christchurch using 253-seat A350-900s, as well as dedicated Boeing 747 jumbo jet freighter flights.
Robertson said the airline had been hoping to increase the frequency of its Christchurch flights up to daily in July, but this could be moved forward with the reopening in May to visa waiver countries. These include most big overseas markets apart from India and China.
"We're already discussing with our head office what the permutations are of potentially bringing forward and up gauging capacity for Christchurch in line with the new timeline."
For the last year Singapore Airlines flights operating into Auckland had been at times lean on passengers they had been a big part of the lift of 22,140 tonnes of export cargo from this country.
Robertson said he was talking to his Singapore head office and joint venture partner Air New Zealand about increasing capacity into Auckland although there were no firm plans to do so at the moment as the airline rapidly rebuilds in other parts of its global network.
It was considering bringing back other aircraft types to New Zealand, including its double decker Airbus A380s which have been brought back from storage in the Australian desert. The aircraft are equipped with suites.
The airline was building up staff in this country, looking to recruit another four people in addition to the 55 based here as demand takes off.
"It's really heartening to see the industry is going through a recruitment phase and we are the same. We are actively also recruiting in New Zealand to scale up our team in line with demand," he said.
"We are very active - it's all hands to the pump right now."
The new roles would be in digital, planning and marketing.
Citizens from visa-waiver countries can enter New Zealand without having to self-isolate from May 2 but under current rules must undergo pre-flight and arrival tests for Covid-19. These requirements are being dropped in other countries including Britain but were a hurdle for the full recovery of flights to this country.
Robertson said it was hoped the lifting of border restrictions on non-visa waiver countries before October which is the current date although the Government has indicated this could be brought forward.
"I think there are still some hurdles along the way in terms of some of the pre-departure testing, some additional measures that we'll probably need to iron out as we go forward but definitely, I think we're really optimistic."
The easing of restrictions has been matched with Kiwis' increased confidence to travel and now they are booking more in advance, and in the case of All Black fans, far into the future for next year's Rugby World Cup in France, starting in September.
Robertson has been in New Zealand for the past five months he's seen the phases of flight bookings.
"Our bookings have been very encouraging. We've seen a week-on-week consistent improvement." The airline had put special deals into the market last week, including return economy fares from Auckland to London at $2263, Singapore $1454, Mumbai $1330 and Bali at $1285.
Demand was following markets that were relaxing Covid restrictions.
"Market segment by market segment we see recovery. Destinations like Bali [are] opening up and we've seen a good response from the Kiwi leisure travellers."
Cape Town, in South Africa, is also and as India opened up there were there had been a surge of bookings on Singapore Airlines to India for April and beyond as many migrants in New Zealand haven't been able to go home for the last two years.
"I think now they're booking their travel from April onwards confidently knowing that they can travel into India and then they can come back to New Zealand at the right time."
Other airlines being slow to return to New Zealand for direct flying into Asian destinations stands to benefit Singapore Airlines.
The airline has a big regional network throughout Asia and had experienced strong bookings for Thailand destinations such as Phuket where it was flying its full-service Singapore Airlines aircraft with lie-flat business class seats following the folding in of SilkAir into its parent company.
Singapore allows vaccinated and Covid negative tested travellers from around 30 countries to enter with quarantine and although New Zealand is not on the list yet, it is hoped it will be soon.
''Singapore hasn't been standing still the last the last couple of years it's been actively developing new attractions so I think there's a lot of experiences there that we all look forward to discovering again.''
Since the start of the pandemic there had been just over one million Covid cases in the country of 5.6 million and just over 1200 deaths. Infection rates have been falling in the past six weeks in the country which has vaccination and booster rates similar to New Zealand.
The airline posted its first net profit since the pandemic began with a surplus of S$85 million ($91m) for the third quarter to December 2021, thanks to increased air travel and strong yields in the cargo market.
The group expects to serve over 70 per cent of its total pre-Covid destinations by the end of this month and in the northern summer will resume daily non-stop services to Newark - where Air NZ planned to head in 2020. The Kiwi airline will tomorrow reveal its New York plans for later in the year. SIA also flies twice-daily flights to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The Singapore-Vancouver-Seattle service, which was originally planned as a seasonal operation, will continue beyond the current Northern Winter. A fourth daily Heathrow service will be added, reinstating London frequencies to pre-Covid levels. Services to Cairns and Darwin will also resume in the coming months.
Singapore Airlines has a strong reputation for its premium product and service and Robertson said the demand from leisure travellers for the front of the plane had increased but the important, high-yielding corporate market was still subdued.
"We still see that business travel may take a little bit longer to recover and that's really why for us I think the recovery is not necessarily going to be a straight trajectory."
The airline is renewing its freighter fleet.
It will purchase seven Airbus A350F freighters, with options for five more aircraft. The A350Fs will burn 40 per cent less fuel compared to SIA's Boeing 747-400F freighters on similar flights, reducing carbon emissions by around 400,000 tonnes annually based on current operations, and boast a longer range that offers greater flexibility in deployment.
The airline sold its last slots at Heathrow in 2020.