SINGAPORE — Singapore Airlines (SIA) will bring back hot towels on all its flights by the year end, more than three years after the service was suspended in May 2020 to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

The serving of hot towels on boarding will be reinstated first in suites, first-class and business-class flights from Sept 12, an SIA spokesman said on Friday in response to queries from The Straits Times.

Those flying in premium economy and economy will enjoy the service from December, the spokesman added.

The towels will carry SIA's signature batik flora scent that the airline introduced in October 2021. It includes notes from six different flowers — aquatic ginger, common dianella, seashore purslane, simpoh lak, utania nervosa and white kopsia.

The scent was developed by the national carrier with the help of local artisanal perfume label SIX, the spokesman said.

The return of hot towels, first reported by travel website The MileLion on Friday (Aug 25), comes after SIA put up a tender on its procurement website to buy hot towels. The tender closed on June 5.

SIA has steadily restored service items that were removed in 2020 to prevent the spread of the virus, such as physical menus and magazines.

In June, SIA brought back appetisers to its economy class meals on medium, long-haul and ultra-long-haul flights. They were not available due to supply issues during the pandemic, among other reasons.

The same month, the airline also put bread rolls back onto economy-class meals on short-haul flights between 1½ and 3½ hours.

The return of appetisers and bread rolls came after SIA drew flak over its economy-class meals earlier in 2023.

Some passengers dubbed its March trial of paper tableware a cost-cutting measure, while netizens in April questioned the food quality in economy class on online forums.

Responding to the criticism, SIA said in May that it removed items from the economy-class meal tray due to various operational and supply-chain reasons during the pandemic, as well as to reduce food waste.

It did not proceed with using paper tableware after considering the feedback from members of the public.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.