Asia carriers cut service

Singapore Airlines has cancelled its Singapore-Dubai flights through May 31, joining a broader pullback in Asian and Gulf air travel. (singaporeair.com) The carrier said flights SQ494 from Singapore and SQ495 from Dubai remain suspended because of the “geopolitical situation in the Middle East,” with refunds or rebooking available for affected passengers. (singaporeair.com) Qatar Airways is still rebuilding after a March shutdown tied to Qatari airspace closures. On April 1, it said its revised schedule would restore service to more than 120 destinations by mid-May 2026. (qatarairways.com) That followed a series of March notices in which Qatar Airways said flights to and from Doha were limited or temporarily suspended while the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority kept the airspace closed. (qatarairways.com; qatarairways.com) The disruption is spreading through hubs that handle long-haul connections between Asia, Europe and the Gulf. Public reports from early April described more than 3,000 delayed flights and more than 150 cancellations across airports in Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore and the Philippines in a single day. (thetraveler.org) Singapore Changi and Manila’s Ninoy Aquino airports were hit more by rolling delays than mass cancellations, as late-arriving aircraft from North Asia and India knocked onward schedules out of sequence. (thetraveler.org) Some of the cuts are not only about closed airspace. Batik Air Malaysia filed domestic schedule changes for March 29 to April 30 that cut flights by 36% and cancelled seven routes, according to aviation schedule tracker AeroRoutes. (aeroroutes.com) Singapore Airlines had planned to add capacity elsewhere in the same season, including a seventh daily Singapore-Bangkok flight from March 29 and a rise to 14 weekly Singapore-Colombo flights from May 1. The Dubai suspension shows how quickly network plans can be overtaken by events outside an airline’s control. (singaporeair.com; singaporeair.com) Cathay Pacific’s public press room shows route launches and traffic updates in March and April, but no matching network-wide suspension notice was visible there when checked on April 12. That leaves a mixed picture: some airlines are publishing formal cuts, while others are managing disruption through day-by-day operations. (cathaypacific.com) For passengers, the practical effect is simple: fewer flights, longer connection risks and more last-minute changes on routes that normally depend on tightly timed hub transfers. Airlines including Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways are telling travelers to check flight status directly before going to the airport. (singaporeair.com; qatarairways.com)