Singapore Airlines, the world’s second-biggest carrier by market value, plans to add flights to the US and south Asia amid a revival in travel demand.

Singapore-to-Newark will return to a daily service from the current five-times-a-week starting Jan 19, the airline said in a stock exchange statement today. Extra Mumbai and New Delhi flights will be added from March and June respectively, it said.
SIA is readjusting its network after filling the highest proportion of available seats in almost two years last month. Air travel demand is gathering pace as economies around the world emerge from the worst recession in six decades, prompting carriers such as Australia’s Qantas Airways to boost fares for international flights.

“Airlines now are starting to have some degree of pricing power, which they didn’t have previously,” said K. Ajith, an analyst at UOB-Kay Hian Research in Singapore. “As such, they may start to selectively add back capacity.”

The airline will also boost the frequency of its Singapore-Moscow-Houston service, as well as adding more flights to Seoul, Colombo, Sri Lanka and Dhaka, Bangladesh.

“Positive signs of a recovery in demand continue to be seen,” the airline said in the statement. “Operating conditions remain challenging and yields in particular remain under pressure.”

The carrier will halt services to Pakistan and Nanjing, China. It will also cut the frequency of flights to Ho Chi Minh City and hand some Kuala Lumpur services to SilkAir.

SIA filled an average of 81.9% of available seats in November, the best occupancy rate since December 2007, according to Bloomberg data. Global passenger demand may grow 4.5% in 2010, compared with an estimated decline of 4.1% this year, according to the International Air Transport Association.

The airline parked planes and cut capacity earlier this year as the worst recession since the 1930s cut travel demand. The carrier posted a net loss of $159 million in the three months ended in September, its first back-to-back quarterly loss in at least seven years.