Singapore Airlines will cancel five weekly flights to Jakarta with effect from December 1, 2016, on instructions from the Indonesian civil aviation authorities, the flagship carrier said.
"The Indonesian authorities have informed the airline that five flights must be cut due to runway maintenance works at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport," SIA said in a press release on Monday.
The five affected flights are SQ962 and SQ963 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Since July 2013, SIA has been operating 63 flights per week to and from Jakarta.
The airline apologised to the customers for the inconvenience and said it will contact the affected customers to accommodate them on other flights. In response to media queries, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said it was aware of the changes in flight services to Jakarta.
"CAAS hopes that the runway maintenance works will be completed expeditiously and that the impact on airlines will be fairly distributed," it told Channel NewsAsia.
"CAAS also hopes that the Indonesian civil aviation authorities will be able to allow Singapore Airlines to resume all 63 weekly services to Jakarta as soon as possible to reduce the impact on business travellers and tourists, who rely heavily on air services to travel between Singapore and Jakarta," it added.
This is the second time when SIA cancelled its flights due to maintenance works at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in less than two weeks. A similar reason was cited when the airline was forced to postpone its thrice-weekly flights linking Singapore, Jakarta and Sydney on November 9. Indonesia withdrew its approval and hence SIA secured the necessary airport slots for the Novmeber 23 launch.
