Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand partnership approved by NZ government

No. NZ and CX will continue to fly 2/3 times daily AKL-HKG. 

I would assume that the new 787 deliveries let them redistribute their 777s to new routes.

Indeed, a smart alliance which make sense for both airlines.

Smart indeed for NZ.

Not everything... Remember Ansett?

"Four A380s on the ground at the same time" - I assume you mean four actual A380s, not carriers operating A380s into AKL (which will be EK, CZ and now SQ)?

Yep, four aircraft.

Although thinking about it, the daytime SQ departs just as the the first EK arrives. So not likely all four would be on the ground together.

CZ operates 787s to AKL, not A380s. It did fly A380s twice last year for special promo flights.

Yep though all you need is for the SQ A380 to hit a delay and then you have your four A380's (and, as it currently stands, only three A380 gates so that will be interesting!)

Note also regulatory approval hasn't been granted for this yet; though they must be pretty confident of it going through or they wouldn't have announced it.  The CX/NZ tie-up wasn't announced until regulatory approval was granted - presumably because they thought MOT might reject as it would be consolidating a monopoly on the AKL HKG route.  Much less risk on MOT rejecting AKL SIN as currently NZ does not fly it.

While it would be cool to see the aircraft all together on the tarmac, it wouldn't be a pretty sight in the terminal. The congestion is bad enough when the three EKs arrive within an hour.

The baggage hall and Biosecurity screening area are not up to the task of the current pax numbers, let alone more at the most busy times.

It's also bad on Tue/Thu/Fri nights when the night SQ and MH arrive in the middle of the midnight-madness Tasman flights.

Bring on the new terminal!

Do you think this will entice possible SQ flights to the US with a stop over in Auckland in the near future? Hard to think that SQ is in just for getting domestic codeshare. If this deal does happen then it will be a major shake up in the Oceania-US airspace. 

Can't see that ever happening. SIN - AKL is in a completely different direction to SIN - LAX for instance...and there's the issue of landing rights in the USA ex NZ. Can't see Air NZ giving up one of their slots on that route to make way for them, especially as LAX is their stopover to the UK.

No. I don't see why SQ would fly NZ-US. It already flies direct to LAX and elsewhere from SIN, and Air NZ does not want competition on its cash-cow monopoly North American routes.

Long-term it is conceivable that SQ/NZ could work together on South American routes, using AKL as a hub, as Star Alliance is weak in the SE Asia-South America market. Air NZ has been looking at South America for a long time but doesn't want to go it alone.

China Southern is supposedly considering routing flights from Guangzhou to South America via AKL.

As for more NZ-US flights, I think the only possibilities are Jetstar and American Airlines (perhaps DFW-AKL-MEL?).

If AA started flying AKL-LAX, they would have me as a customer in an instant (I have family in the eastern US, near a non-major airport that can be reached in one hop from DFW/IAH but not LAX). That, and DFW is a genuinely nice airport, and LAX is a cesspit (yes, it's getting a fancy cover at the moment, but it's still a dive). Can't see it happening any time soon though.

UA might do it (and CO said they would pre-merger) but NZ would probably dissuade their *A partner from doing so. Delta is the remaining option, they have the planes to easily fly LAX-AKL and no alliance hookup to dissuade them. Anyone got the number of the right people in Atlanta to hassle? :)

As someone who lost over 400K Ansett points when they died, I have some sympathy for your point Des, but the strange and sorry saga that led to the ownership of Ansett by Air NZ in the first place, and Ansetts subsequent demise, had a lot more to do with acts of utter bastardry by the Australian Government of the time, than it did to the management of Air NZ.  SQ had already exited the share register before the Ansett collapse too.

Unfortunately trade routes still operate from a North-South perspective.

Yes there will come a time when Asian and Latin American economies will sync up even more but the prism by which the current Latin American economy is viewed is through North America and the Iberian peninsula across the Atlantic.