Singapore Airlines plans a jump in flights to Australia

afr.com:

Singapore Airlines is ramping up its flights into Australia to meet booming demand from travellers, with plans to add 4700 seats a week next year in a move that should help to ease the cost of international airfares.

The seats largely restore Singapore Airlines’ pre-pandemic capacity, with a fifth daily service to Melbourne at the end of May.

Singapore Airlines cut flights to Australia during the pandemic, and the plans to reinstate them. Bloomberg

“Resuming Melbourne’s fifth daily service at the end of May will see Singapore Airlines’ operations to the Victorian capital once again exceed our pre-COVID levels of capacity to the key Australian gateway,” Louis Arul, Singapore Airlines’ regional vice president of south-west Pacific, said.

“It will also see Melbourne boast the highest frequency of daily flights to any Australian city, allowing us to meet the ongoing demand for passenger inbound and outbound travel as well as cargo imports and exports.”

The adjustments, which remain subject to regulatory approvals, come as part of a broader global ramp-up of Singapore Airlines’ services. The carrier plans to restore its Airbus A380 services between Singapore and Frankfurt, reinstate direct services between Singapore and Barcelona and increase flight frequencies to pre-pandemic levels to multiple cities in its network.

Though Singapore will maintain four daily flights into Sydney, it will change the aircraft flying the evening flight to offer first class, reflecting a preference from leisure travellers since the pandemic.

“Since international borders reopened in November 2021, the demand for travel in premium cabins has been strong,” Mr Arul said.

It will also start flying bigger A350-900 planes to Cairns, adding 442 seats a