SINGAPORE, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Singapore Airlines (SIA) will operate daily scheduled flights between Singapore and Beijing from January 21 to March 16 in support of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, a SIA spokesperson told Xinhua on Wednesday.
"The flights are for both Singapore and foreign Olympic officials and athletes who are attending the Games," the spokesperson said.
Besides Hong Kong and Tokyo, Singapore will be a regional transport hub for Beijing 2022 where chartered flight services will be provided.
Singapore's transport minister S. Iswaran said in a Facebook post earlier that Beijing 2022 would be a "good opportunity" for the two countries to enhance people-to-people exchanges.
"Singapore Airlines will be operating chartered flights through Changi Airport as a connecting hub for the region," he wrote.
SIA has supported athletes and national sports organizations with their travel requirements to numerous international tournaments and games in the past, and will continue to do so going forward, the spokesperson added.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, SIA continued with limited flight services between Singapore and the Chinese mainland. It also worked to deliver essential medical supplies to and from China.
In January and February 2020, SIA facilitated the delivery of more than 100 tonnes of medical supplies to Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administration Region.
This was followed in February 2020 by the delivery of seven tonnes of diagnostic reagent kits, as well as other medical supplies, that had been donated by the Singapore government on board a chartered Scoot flight to Wuhan.
In April 2020, SIA distributed hand sanitizers and antiseptic wipes to airport partners in Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xiamen in support of their health and safety measures for customers.
All SIA aircraft have powerful air circulation equipment drive cabin air through high-grade HEPA filters, removing 99.9 percent of known viruses and effectively refreshing cabin air every two to three minutes, according to the spokesperson. ■
