Passengers can’t fly Air India to Singapore from June to Aug

Passengers can’t fly Air India to Singapore from June to Aug

 Venkadesan.S@timesofindia.com 14.015.2026

Chennai : Air India will suspend its twice daily direct flights from Chennai to Singapore as part of a wider rationalisation drive in view of soaring fuel costs and operational pressures. It is not clear if the 14 connecting flights to Singapore via Mumbai and Delhi have also been curtailed. A fresh timetable is expected in some time. The Tata Group-owned carrier on Wednesday announced that operations would be curtailed on other international routes as well. 

These include Delhi-Shanghai, Mumbai-Dhaka and DelhiMale through Aug, and reduced frequency of flights to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Kathmandu, Colombo and Dhaka. 

The impact extends to Europe, North America and Australia as well. Air India has suspended the Delhi-Chicago route temporarily and reduced frequencies to San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, Paris, Copenhagen, Milan, Zurich, Rome, Melbourne and Sydney, among others. Despite the temporary cuts, the airline said it would continue operating more than 1,200 international flights every month across fi-ve continents, including 158 weekly flights to the Far East, Southeast Asia and SAARC destinations. 

The Chennai-Singapore flights cater to leisure travellers, business passengers, students and transit flyers connecting to Southeast Asia, the Far East and Australia. International carriers such as Singapore Airlines and Scoot Airways too operate direct flights between Chennai and Singapore. 

A Sankar, president of Indian Air Passengers’Association, said that move will encourage other carriers to raise fares. “Airlines reducing the operations despite the Union govt releasing ₹5,000 crore emergency credit to them shows their incapability to manage the crisis,” he said. Sankar said Chennai-Singapore is one of the busiest sectors, with people from all walks of life often travelling between these countries for business, work as well as for leisure.

 Air India said affected passengers would be offered alternative flights where feasible, along with 1 options for free date changes or full refunds. The airline added that it is working with regulators and airport authorities to restore full capacity once operating conditions get better.