Scoot adds regional routes
Scoot announced two new Embraer E190‑E2 routes from Singapore’s Changi: Belitung will get twice‑weekly service starting May 3, and Pontianak will get three weekly flights beginning June 29. (x.com) Those regional links expand short-haul options from Singapore and are useful if you’re planning a Southeast Asia island or Kalimantan trip this summer. (x.com)
Scoot is using a smaller jet to open routes that bigger planes usually can’t justify, and that is how Belitung and Pontianak just made it onto Singapore’s nonstop map. The airline said Belitung flights start on May 3, 2026, twice a week, and Pontianak flights start on June 29, 2026, three times a week. (flyscoot.com) Both routes will use the Embraer E190-E2, a 112-seat regional jet in Scoot’s layout. A plane that size gives Scoot a way to test thinner city pairs without trying to fill an Airbus every day. (flyscoot.com) (embraer.com) Belitung sits off the eastern coast of Sumatra, and it has been on Changi Airport Group’s wish list for new Indonesia links since at least June 2025. This week’s launch turns that airport planning into an actual bookable route. (straitstimes.com) (flyscoot.com) Pontianak is the capital of West Kalimantan on Borneo, and Scoot is selling it as a short nonstop to a city on the Kapuas River with the Equator Monument as its signature stop. For Singapore travelers, that means a direct entry point into Indonesian Borneo instead of building the trip around a larger hub first. (nowboarding.changiairport.com) (flyscoot.com) Scoot is not adding these two cities in isolation. The same April 9, 2026 announcement also raised frequencies to Bali, Jakarta, Labuan Bajo, Lombok, Manado, Phuket, Okinawa, Changsha, Sibu, and Vienna, which tells you the carrier is pushing both breadth and frequency at the same time. (flyscoot.com) That matters because Scoot’s regional strategy has been moving toward smaller Southeast Asian cities since it brought in the Embraer fleet in 2024. Its first Embraer routes included places like Sibu, Kuantan, Miri, Krabi, Hat Yai, and Koh Samui, which are all markets where a 112-seat jet is a better fit than a larger narrowbody. (embraer.com) (laranews.net) With Belitung and Pontianak added, Scoot said its network reaches 85 destinations across 18 countries and territories. That gives Singapore more direct spokes into secondary cities, which is exactly how a hub gets stickier for weekend leisure trips and short regional connections. (flyscoot.com) (cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com) The fares show what Scoot thinks this traffic looks like. Reported one-way prices start at 99 Singapore dollars to Belitung and 129 Singapore dollars to Pontianak, which is squarely aimed at short-break travelers rather than long-haul planners. (asiaone.com) So the story is not just “two new routes.” It is Scoot using a Brazil-built regional jet, delivered as part of a nine-aircraft plan announced in 2024, to turn overlooked Indonesian cities into nonstop weekend options from Changi. (embraer.com) (flyscoot.com)
