After increasing A380 services for just one week, Singapore Airlines is now adding extra flights between Australia and Singapore.
Just last week, Singapore Airlines revealed plans to add a second daily Airbus A380 route to Sydney and bring back a daily A380 to Melbourne for the season. Travelers on both ends of the journey must have thought that was a good idea because yesterday the airline announced the addition of more flights to Australia, including an extension of the Melbourne A380 service to help with the busy summer travel period.
Seven Australian cities are served by Singapore Airlines’ 111 weekly flights this month: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Cairns, and Darwin.
Singapore Airlines (SIA), pending regulatory permission, will
Add a fifth flight each day to Sydney
Add a fifth daily flight and extend the A380’s regular daily operation to Melbourne through November 21.
A four-times-weekly service should be added to Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth.
Additional thousands of seats for Australia
For the busiest holiday season between December and January, the adjustments will result in roughly 7,000 extra seats each week between Australia and Singapore Changi Airport (SIN). They will also give Australians more options for connecting flights to Europe, which should result in a decrease in the market’s already exorbitant rates. According to Louis Arul, regional vice president for South West Pacific at SIA, the decision to considerably increase services during the holiday season is a result of the anticipated strong demand. And he said:
There has been a considerable demand for travel during the current mid-year holiday season, and all indications are that this trend will continue as we approach the yearly peak.
The recently reinstated A380 daily service in Melbourne was supposed to terminate at the end of October, but that date has been extended until November 21st. After that, the A380 will be redeployed to Auckland, New Zealand, to satisfy the demand for the summer season there. Melbourne Airport (MEL) will continue to offer a fourth daily flight despite the Superjumbo crossing the Tasman Sea, and starting on November 22nd, SIA will also offer a fifth daily service.With planes leaving at 00:35, 07:10, 10:35, 16:40, and 19:25, Melburnians will have a choice of five departures throughout the day and night. Customers will have the option of 42 business class, 24 premium economy, and 187 economy class seats when the A380 is replaced by an Airbus A350-900, with the fifth service also utilising SIA’s long-haul A350-900.The SQ208 route, which departs MEL at 19:25 and arrives in Singapore at 00:15 the following day, will be flown by a Boeing 777-300ER. The SIN-to-Melbourne flights will depart at 00:25, 07:45, 11:00, 19:30, and 21:50.
additional flights from all throughout the country
With the addition of SQ212, an early morning A350-900 departure, the number of flights to Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD) will rise from four to five times daily beginning on December 2. The daily flights will leave Sydney at 6:45 a.m. (777), 9:05 a.m. (A350), 12:15 a.m. (A380), 16:10 a.m. (A380), and 19:10 a.m. (A350), with return flights departing SIN at 0:45 a.m., 7:05 a.m., 10:30 a.m., and 20:40 a.m. With the additional flight, SIA will expand its operations beyond pre-COVID levels to Sydney, where they are already present.
The current daily flights to Adelaide Airport (ADL) will be complemented by a medium-haul A350-900 trip four times each week on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. There are alternatives at both ends of the day thanks to the daily flight leaving Adelaide at 10:35 and the convenient additional service departing at 18:35.
From Brisbane Airport (BNE), on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from December 1 through January 13, 2024, SIA will operate an additional flight (SQ266). This will increase the current three daily flights, which are all operated by the medium-haul A350-900.
As of November 24, Perth Airport (PER) will also offer a fourth service, SQ226 to Singapore, which will run until January 14th, 2024. Customers in Perth will have a choice of two aircraft because the new trip is on the medium-haul A350-900 while the three daily services that are now offered are on Boeing 787s.
With 25 weekly flights to Singapore and seamless connections to more than 110 SIA destinations globally, Perth has a population of about 2.2 million, demonstrating the airline’s confidence in that market.
The extra flights have already begun to sell out, which may put an end to Australian discussions about recovery or comparisons to pre-COVID levels. The huge additional capacity Singapore Airlines is offering across the nation will feed into the desire for international travel among Australians, especially at costs they can afford.
