Singapore Airlines is to introduce a fourth daily rotation on its link between Singapore Changi and London Heathrow this winter as it takes advantage of the growing demand for services on the route. The announcement follows just a week after the Asian carrier celebrated the upgrade of the last of its three current daily flights to an Airbus A380.
The new flight will have a late-night departure from Singapore and according to the airline will be operated with a Boeing 777-300ER although over time is also expected to be upgraded to the A380, subject to demand and aircraft availability. The increase in frequency will be carried out progressively, says Singapore Airlines, starting the week of September 9, 2012 when the number of flights per week will rise from 21 from 25. The full complement of 28 flights per week will take effect from the week of October 21, 2012, it confirms.
“We have been looking for opportunities to increase our London flights for many years and are pleased that we can now do so, to provide even more travel options to our customers,” said Mr Mak Swee Wah, Executive Vice President Commercial, Singapore Airlines. “Not only are London and Singapore popular destinations in their own right, the additional flights will allow for more convenient connections beyond London to other points in Europe, and beyond Singapore to other points within Asia and South West Pacific.”
Singapore Airlines first started serving the London market in 1973 shortly after it was formed from the split of Malaysia – Singapore Airlines into two separate national ventures (its predecessor had begun flights to the UK capital in June 1971 on a three times weekly schedule) and it now competes with British Airways and Qantas on the route. In 2011 an estimated 648,000 O&D passengers travelled between Singapore Changi and London Heathrow a third successive year of traffic growth. This represented a 3.3 per cent increase on the numbers recorded in 2010 and up 11.5 per cent on the figure five years earlier in 2006.
Over the past 20 years capacity on the Singapore Changi – London Heathrow route has almost trebled. There has been Year-on-Year capacity growth in all but four years during the period with last year’s 5.3 per cent change the largest increase recorded for the past seven years. With the latest capacity changes revealed by Singapore Airlines there will be more than 1,000,000 annual non-stop seats available in each direction between the two destinations this year for the first time ever.
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