Singapore Airlines ramps up Australian flights

Singapore Airlines will begin rebuilding its Australian network from Monday June 8, in line with plans by Singapore's Changi Airport to once again welcome transit passengers.

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide are all on SQ's new map, while international destinations reappearing on the schedule are Amsterdam, Auckland, Barcelona, Cebu, Christchurch, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Medan and Osaka.

These land alongside currently-served cities including Bangkok, Frankfurt, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, London, Los Angeles, Manila, Narita, Seoul, Shanghai and Zurich.

Although Singapore itself remains closed to visitors, travellers will gradually be allowed to transit through Changi Airport using special transit lanes which are in the process of being established.

"Singapore Airlines will announce its plans for these transfer lanes when they have been finalised," the airline said in a statement. "Please note that until then, Singapore Airlines customers will not be able to transit through Changi Airport."

While most Australians are currently prohibited from flying overseas, exemptions are being granted on the grounds of essential travel or if they can otherwise demonstrate 'a compelling reason for needing to leave Australian territory.

Read: Who is exempt from Australia's international coronavirus travel ban?

As previously reported, discussions are now taking place between the Singapore and Australian governments on opening travel between the two countries without the need for a 14-day isolation period.

Singapore Airlines Regional Vice President South West Pacific, Philip Goh, said the increase in services to Australia was a small but confident step in the right direction.

"We are committed to re-establishing Australia’s connection to Singapore and the rest of world in a Covid-safe manner during these challenging times," Goh said.

“With Australia’s travel restrictions remaining at Level 4, these flights will provide additional cargo capacity for carriage of imports and exports between the cities and our global network, while allowing people who have an urgent and essential need to travel, or return home, to do so."

The shape of SQ's new Australian schedule

Singapore Airlines' June-July schedule provides direct flight for Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

Brisbane flights will run via Sydney due to exceptionally low demand from the Queensland capital. As it happens, this is the same pattern as when Singapore Airlines launched services to the Queensland capital in 1984 with a once-weekly Singapore-Sydney-Brisbane routing.

All flights will rely on Singapore Airlines' Airbus A350-900 aircraft.

Sydney will be served five-times weekly. Three services a week will be direct Singapore-Sydney flights, with SQ231 departing Singapore at 00:45 on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday, arriving in Sydney at 10:25. The SQ232 return flight will depart Sydney at 12:10 on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, arriving in Singapore at 18:40.  The other two Sydney flights will be those which run via Brisbane, for which regulatory approval is required.

Melbourne will be served twice a week with Singapore Airlines’ A350-900 medium-haul aircraft. SQ237 will depart Singapore on Monday evening at 23:55, arriving in Melbourne at 09:20 Tuesday morning. The return flight, SQ218, will depart late Tuesday evening at 23:50, arriving in Singapore at 05:45 the next morning.

The second weekly service to Melbourne, SQ217 will depart Singapore at 11:10 Friday morning before arriving in Melbourne at 20:35. The return flight, SQ238 will then depart Melbourne at 09:35 on Saturday morning, arriving in Singapore at 15:25 on Saturday afternoon.

Adelaide will be served once weekly, with SQ279 departing Singapore on Monday evenings at 23:40 and arriving in Adelaide on Tuesday morning at 07:55. The return flight, SQ278 will depart Adelaide on Tuesday at 09:10, arriving in Singapore at 15:10.

Brisbane sees SQ288 planned to operate on Tuesday and Friday, with the flight leaving Singapore at 09:35 and arriving in Sydney at 19:15, it will then depart Sydney at 20:25, arriving in Brisbane at 21:55, before departing at 23:00 and arriving in Singapore the next morning at 05:00.

In addition to the Australian services, Singapore Airlines will resume twice-weekly operations to Auckland and once-weekly flights to Christchurch.

Also read: Australia-Singapore travel could restart under 'green lane' plan

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.