SIA to drop one of its 4 daily flights to Tokyo

Singapore Airlines (SIA) will halt two of its four flights between Changi Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport from this Sunday. --ST PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN

SINGAPORE Airlines will drop one of its four daily flights to Tokyo from Sunday, as demand slumps in the wake of an earthquake that has also unleashed a radiation scare in the past week.

The carrier said on its website on Tuesday that it will suspend one of two daily services to Haneda from March 27, but flights to Tokyo's Narita, will operate normally.

SIA did not say when full services are expected to resume.

Industry watchers are expecting other airlines to also cut flights to and from Japan, as the country struggles to cope with the aftermath of a massive 9.0 earthquake which hit the north-eastern coast on March 11, triggering a tsunami and a crisis at a nuclear power plant about 250 kms from Tokyo.

Despite assurances by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao), a United Nations body that regulates the global aviation industry; and the International Air Transport Association (Iata) which represents about 230 airlines, that there is no need for precautionary measures at this time, several states including India and South Korea have introduced steps such as radiation screening for travellers returning from Japan.

Iata said recently that the crisis will affect the Japan air travel market significantly in the short-term with recovery expected only in the second half of 2011.