The airline said in a statement on Wednesday that it would reduce the number of flights between Singapore and several cities in Asia including Penang, Ho Chi Minh City, Seoul, Osaka, Bangalore and Chennai. It will stop flights to Amritsar in India.

'Other changes will be made on an ad-hoc basis where demand requires,' it said, adding capacity adjustments will be made quickly where demand falls.

The airline said the changes, which are being implemented progressively throughout the five-month-long Northern winter schedule from Sunday, will 'better match capacity with demand.'

Services to Penang and Ho Chi Minh will be gradually reduced to 18 and 17 weekly flights respectively, while one service to Seoul will be first reduced and scrapped completely from Feb 2 to March 28 next year when the winter season ends.

But SIA's 17 weekly services to and from Seoul during winter remain unchanged.

Frequencies to Bangalore and Chennai will also be reduced, while the service to Amritsar will be dropped from February. Passengers who have booked on flights to the northern Indian city will be transferred to SIA's New Delhi service.

But SIA has increased services to the Middle East, with flights to Istanbul, via Dubai, raised from four to six. SIA will also fly to Riyadh soon.

These changes come two weeks after the carrier reported that it had been hit by its first fall in passenger numbers in three years.

The airline's passenger numbers in raw terms fell 1.6 per cent to 1.51 million in September from a year ago.

The passenger load factor also declined 4.1 per cent to 76.9 per cent last month.

'In the current operating environment, Singapore Airlines remains committed to providing customers the highest standard of service, while ensuring capacity is allocated carefully to match demand,' said SIA.

'Where demand falls, capacity adjustments will be made quickly.'