Singapore Airlines to increase Melbourne services

In response to the growth of the Australian travel market, Singapore Airlines (SIA) today announced it will increase its services to Melbourne from the end of March 2003.

SIA is the largest foreign carrier operating to and from Australia and already operates double-daily flights between Melbourne and Singapore.

From 31 March 2003, SIA will commence an additional three weekly flights, bringing to 17 the number of non-stop flights between Melbourne and Singapore. The addition represents an 18% capacity increase on SIA's Melbourne services.

The three additional flights will be operated by Boeing 777-200 aircraft on the following schedules:

Monday, Wednesday and Sunday
SQ237 - Departs Singapore 2345hrs, Arrives Melbourne 0900hrs the next day

Monday, Tuesday and Thursday
SQ238 - Departs Melbourne 1035hrs, Arrives Singapore 1615hrs

The late night departure allows for better connections to Australia for passengers making connecting flights from around Asia. For passengers departing Australia, the flights also allow for easier connections to Indian destinations, as well as more connections for destinations in North Asia.

The extra services mean that SIA will provide 73 non-stop scheduled services between Singapore and Australia each week. SIA commenced services to Melbourne in 1972 and increased the frequency to double-daily in 1998.

In addition, SIA currently operates a supplementary weekly flight to Melbourne to cater for increased demand over the end of year period. The supplementary flight has operated from Singapore every Saturday from 5 October and will continue until 11 January 2003. The service returns to Singapore from Melbourne on Sundays and will conclude on 12 January 2003.