Barely a week has passed since the New Zealand Minister of Transport approved a proposal for an alliance between Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Air New Zealand (see story), the former has already made strides to take advantage of the new partnership.
The A380 – serving Auckland soon!
The agreement makes it possible for SIA to deploy the Airbus A380 to New Zealand for the first time, and the airline has announced that it will begin doing so for its flights to Auckland from October 27 onwards. The superjumbo will take over the daily service currently flown by the Boeing 777-300ERs, while the five weekly B777-200ER flights remain the same. With both B777 models offering less than 300 seats, the 471-seater A380 will provide a significant boost to capacity.
Suites – "A Class Beyond First"
In addition, the deployment of the superjumbo will also mean that customers travelling on the route will be able to enjoy the SIA Suite. Marketed as “A Class Beyond First”, the highly acclaimed cabin product was first introduced on the inaugural A380 back in 2007.
Business class cabin on the superjumbo
SIA will use to A380 to serve Auckland daily, with flight SQ285 departing Singapore at 2050 and arriving in the New Zealand city at 1145 the following day. The return flight SQ286 will depart Auckland at 1330, arriving back in Singapore at 1900.
A380's economy class
SIA flies the A380 to Beijing, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne (until 25 October 2014), Mumbai, New Delhi, New York, Paris, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo Narita and Zurich.
For more information, visit singaporeair.com
Clement Huang
