In May 2011, Singapore Airlines announced its intention to establish a low-cost subsidiary airline for medium and long-haul routes. On 1 November 2011, the airline was named "Scoot". On 4 June 2012, Scoot began its first flight from Singapore to Sydney Airport in Australia, and later to Gold Coast, its second Australian destination, the first aircraft were Boeing 777-200 transferred from Singapore Airlines. On 24 October 2012, Scoot announced that its parent company Singapore Airlines would be transferring the 20 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners they had ordered to Scoot to replace their current fleet of Boeing 777-200 aircraft and help with its ongoing expansion and future growth. On 26 October 2012, Scoot announced an agreement with Tigerair to interline tickets between the two airlines.

On 31 January 2013, Scoot announced it would increase its fleet by taking delivery of a fifth Boeing 777-200 by the end of May or early June, to add two or three more routes to the network. On 21 March 2013, Scoot announced that it would launch a thrice-weekly Singapore-Taipei-Seoul., starting June 2013. Later that December, Scoot commenced its five-weekly flights from Singapore to Perth.

Scoot introduced the B787-9 on the Sydney, Perth and Hong Kong routes from February 2015. Bangkokand Gold Coast would follow in late April. It also expanded to China flying to Tianjin Binhai, Shenyang and Qingdao. On 16 December 2014, Scoot announced its new long haul carrier in Thailand, NokScoot, a joint venture between Scoot and Nok Air. The new airline started commercial flights from Bangkok's Don Mueang airport in the second half of 2014. Nok Air owns 51% of NokScoot while Scoot takes the remaining 49%.

As Scoot continues to take deliveries of the Boeing 787, the airline has phased out all six of its aging Boeing 777.  On 15 October 2015, Singapore Airlines announced that Scoot would replace its existing Singapore to Jeddah service via Dubai and launch direct services between Singapore and Jeddah.  On 16 May 2016, Scoot joined the world's largest low-cost carrier alliance, Value Alliance. On 18 May 2016, Singapore Airlines established Budget Aviation Holdings, a holding company to own and manage its budget airlines Scoot and Tiger Airways following the delisting of Tiger Airways from the Singapore stock exchange. 

On 4 November 2016, Singapore Airlines announced that Tigerair would merge into Scoot. It would allow both airlines to achieve synergies in fare costs and revenues. The rebranding did not affect joint-ventures Tigerair Australia and Tigerair Taiwan. (As Tigerair Australia is 100% owned by Virgin Australia whilst Tigerair Taiwan is co-owned by China Airlines, 80%, and its subsidiary Mandarin Airlines holding the other 20%). 

On 25 July 2017, Tigerair was officially merged into Scoot, using Tigerair AOC, but retaining the 'Scoot' brand. Following the merger, in 2017, Scoot announced that it would launch flights to five more destinations: Harbin, Kuantan, Kuching, Palembang and Honolulu. The current planes from Tigerair were rebranded into Scoot flown under its new image after the merge, inheriting the Airbus A319 and A320 for the shorter routes. Under the new venture, Scoot also launched direct flights between Singapore and Berlin and Athens in 2018.