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Singapore Airlines (SIA) is set to ramp up its Australian operations over the end-of-year peak period, with increased services across Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth airports.
SIA will put on a fifth daily flight to Sydney from December, extend its A380 service to Melbourne for an extra month before adding a fifth daily flight from November, and bring four additional flights per week to Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth, subject to regulatory approval.
These new and expanded services will add at least 7,000 seats per week between Australia and Singapore over the December/January period, with Singapore Airlines’ regional vice president south west pacific, Louis Arul, saying the move is in response to anticipated high demand.
“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,” he said.
Starting 2 December, SIA will add a fifth daily flight between Singapore and Sydney using an A350-900 aircraft, departing Changi Airport at 7:05pm local time and arriving in Sydney at 5:55am the following morning as SQ261 before returning to Singapore at 9:05am as SQ212. The service will continue until 14 January, 2024.
“Adding a fifth daily service to Sydney will take our operations past pre-Covid capacity levels and provide more options for customers to connect onto our global network of more than 110 destinations across the globe,” said Arul.
“The addition of the fifth service will ensure customers have a selection of departure and arrival times that will suit their needs, whether travelling for business or leisure.”
In Melbourne, the SQ237/SQ228 A380 service, originally slated to wrap up at the end of October, will instead continue until 21 November, after which it will be replaced with an A350-900 and a fifth daily flight added, operating to Melbourne as SQ247 and to Singapore as SQ248 through to 31 March.
“The addition of a fifth daily flight to Melbourne will ensure we maintain capacity above pre-Covid levels, even with the A380 being deployed to Auckland for the peak holiday period,” said Arul.
“The fifth daily service will provide even more connectivity through to a number of European cities as well as the UK, helping to deliver customers even more travel options to suit their needs.”
Adelaide will gain four weekly A350-900 flights operating as SQ276 and SQ277 from 2 December, while Brisbane will see four weekly A350-900 flights operating as SQ265 and SQ266 between 1 December and 13 January, and Perth will see four weekly A350-900 flights operating as SQ213 and SQ226 from 24 November to 14 January.
