Singapore Airlines says it is ramping up flights from Australia to Singapore in light of increasing demand for flights via Singapore to London in the wake of Qantas shifting its international hub to Dubai.
The flag-carrier added a fourth daily service between Melbourne and Singapore on Monday, with the new SQ207/208 flight offering a late-night option for Melbourne’s busiest business travellers.
SQ208 will leave Melbourne at 6.10pm to reach Singapore at midnight – a timetable well suited to cramming in a day of work before heading to Tullamarine, and ensuring that you’ll be ready for a sound sleep as soon as you hit your hotel.
The return SQ207 service is wheels-up from Singapore at 7.35am, arriving into Melbourne around 5pm.
The new flight operates on an Airbus A330, with two of SQ’s other MEL-SIN flights on an Airbus A380 superjumbo and the fourth on a Boeing 777-300.
This week will also see Thursday and Sunday added to the thrice-weekly Adelaide-Singapore flight SQ276/SQ277, on top of the daily SQ277/278 service.
The City of Churches lost its sole Qantas flight to Singapore earlier this year in the changes to Qantas international network following its alliance with Emirates.
“Our customers are telling us they want more flight options through Singapore, and we saw the opportunity presented by our new daily service to Heathrow to open up new connections from Australia in particular” said Subhas Menon, Singapore Airlines’ Regional Vice President for the South-West Pacific region.
“Offering a new wave of same day and overnight travel options on the Australia - Europe market is a big factor in our favour.”
Next week Singapore Airlines will reveal the next generation of its highly-regarded first class suites and business class seats, which will debut on selected aircraft in the third quarter of 2013.
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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.
QFF
12 Apr 2013
Total posts 1564
Singapore seriously catching up my attention for ride to Europe. Unfortunatelly Qantas going in opposite direction. Pity that BA does not flys from Melbourne to London and I predict it will change.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
02 Aug 2012
Total posts 73
Funny isn't it. Qantas stopped flying ADL to SIN because they say that they wouldnt be able to fill the planes, however SAL have been increasing flights over the past couple of years. makes you wonder about the QF strategy. I think that ADL must be the only Australian capital city that does not have one QF overseas flight.
24 May 2013
Total posts 5
No, Qantas international also does not serve Canberra, Darwin and Hobart!!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 Dec 2012
Total posts 66
Add also, that Canberra and Hobart have NO International Flights - despite being an Internaional Airport....
Darwin is quite poor in terms of full-service carriers - I think PR & GA are the only full-service carriers operating from DRW. They operate from BNE-DRW (to MNL & DPS) respectively.
Come on QF - what about giving the NT service... afterall it is part of your name!
09 Sep 2012
Total posts 139
Not much chance of Qantas ever looking after the NT, given their paltry service to the state which nurtured it and gave it the other part of its name.
They really should change the name to SAMAS, as they really seem to believe, as TheRealBabushka does and states elsewhere on this thread, that the epicentre of Australia is "the twin cities of Sydney and Melbourne"
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 Dec 2012
Total posts 66
Longreach... I love the SAMAS name, though keeping in theme with the original name creation, should it not be NAVAS (NSW and Vic Airial Services), rather than the city names?
21 Apr 2012
Total posts 3006
QF could not fill a plane full of pax whose final destination is SIN. That is the difference.
I would hazard a guess that more than 50% of the pax on SQ flights from ADL to SIN are connecting onwards to SQ destinations.
That is QF's essential problem. It is an end-of-the-line carrier. So, with that in mind, it does seem ridiculous that they have pulled out of SIN for their European sectors.
Surely it would seem building an ever bigger base in SIN was the solution. That strategy would however be reliant on further 5th freedom access rights granted to QF by the Singapore government, not to mention opposition to such a strategy from insular "buy Australia" quarters of the domestic market.
One might argue that if the epicentre of Australia was located in Darwin instead of the twin cities of Sydney and Melbourne, perhaps QF's strategy might be different. Alas that is not the case. Consequently a policy of triage prevailed.
At the end of the day, water will find its level. Preventing Qantas from doing what it believes is profitable will cause it to choose alternative options with unintended consequences. In life, you really can't have your cake and eat it.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 Sep 2012
Total posts 21
Qantas' loss is Singapore's gain, it would seem. I still perfer to transfer through Changi and these more flexible flight options will only seal the deal as far as I am concerned!
03 Jul 2013
Total posts 2
I doubt MEL-SIN has a double A380 service! A check on SQs website shows a daily single A380 service on the MEL- SIN sector. The other 3 are served by a 77W, 773 and the latest addition by the A330.
14 Jun 2013
Total posts 352
Maybe an short-term equipment swap Keviv, SQ has had SQ218 and SQ228 both as A380s since the middle of last year.
13 Dec 2011
Total posts 30
Keviv is correct.
The schedule changed on July 1
The midnight flight is now a 77W at least until the end of the current schedule.
I'm booked on this flight next week.
I almost prefer the 77W to be honest.
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