Singapore Airlines (SIA) has announced a significant increase in its operations across Australia’s main airports during the year-end travel peak.
Pending regulatory approval, SIA will add a fifth daily flight to Sydney, surpassing its pre-Covid capacity, as well as extend its A380 operations to Melbourne for an extra month before redeploying the aircraft to Auckland, while also introducing a fifth daily flight to Melbourne. Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth will each receive four additional weekly services, enhancing connectivity to key destinations in Europe and North Asia.
The additional services will add almost 7,000 more seats a week between Australia and Singapore, providing more options and choices for customers looking to travel over the December/January period.
Singapore Airlines regional vice president South West Pacific, Louis Arul, said the decision to significantly ramp up SIA’s operations over the year-end holiday period would help support the high-levels of demand that were expected.
“The appetite for travel has been robust over the current mid-year holiday period and signs are that demand will remain elevated as we head into the traditionally strong year-end peak,” Arul said.
Melbourne
SIA has extended the operation of its Airbus A380 flights to Melbourne until November 21st, surpassing the previously scheduled end of October. From November 22nd, the A380 will be replaced by an Airbus A350-900 with the airline introducing an additional fifth daily service between Singapore and Melbourne.
The new service, operating as SQ247, will depart from Changi Airport at 19:30 and arrive in Melbourne the following morning at 05:55. The return flight, SQ248, will depart Melbourne at 07:10 and arrive in Singapore at 11:50. Subject to regulatory approval, this fifth daily service will continue until March 31, 2024.
Sydney
From 2 December through to 14 January 2024, SIA will mount a new daily service between Singapore and Sydney using an A350-900 aircraft.
SQ261 will depart Singapore’s Changi Airport at 19:05 and arrive in Sydney at 05:55 the next day. The flight will then return to Singapore as SQ212, departing Sydney at 09:05 and arriving into Singapore at 14:15.
SQ211 will continue to operate as a 777-300ER and depart Singapore at 10:30, arriving in Sydney at 21:20, however will return to Singapore the next morning, departing Sydney at 06:45 as SQ262, arriving at 11:55.
Adelaide
The South Australian capital will receive an additional four flights a week from 2 December, with SIA planning to mount SQ276 and SQ277 on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Pending regulatory approval, SQ277 will depart Singapore at 08:05 and arrive into Adelaide at 17:20. The flight will then turn-around and depart Adelaide at 18:35 as SQ276 and arrive back into Singapore’s Changi Airport at 22:55 the same day.
Brisbane
From 1 December 2023 through to 13 January 2024, Brisbane will see an additional service operating on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with the deployment of an A350-900 medium-haul aircraft.
Delivering customers 40 lie-flat Business Class seats, each with direct aisle access and 263 ergonomically designed Economy Class seats in a 3-3-3 layout, SQ265 will depart Changi Airport at 07:15 local time, arriving in Brisbane at 16:55. The return flight, SQ266 will depart Brisbane at 18:10, arriving to Singapore at 00:05 the next morning.
The additional four-times weekly services will provide more than 1,200 additional seats a week to the Queensland capital.
Perth
From 24 November 2023 Perth will welcome an additional four flights a week with the introduction of SQ213 and SQ226.
Running until 14 January 2024, SQ213 will depart Changi Airport at 07:40 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, arriving the same day at 12:55. The return flight SQ226 from Perth to Singapore, will depart at 14:10, arriving back into Changi Airport at 19:30.
The additional four-times weekly services will be operated by SIA’s A350-900 medium-haul aircraft delivering 40 Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 layout and 263 Economy Class seats in a 3-3-3 layout.
