Singapore confirm Airbus for Brisbane, Adelaide & Perth

Singapore Airlines will introduce its new Airbus A330-300 regional aircraft on routes to Australian and Japanese cities from March 2009. The new aircraft have newer seats and entertainment systems than the aircraft they replace, although seats will be of the smaller regional type than the longhaul version used on some routes.

The first of 19 new A330-300s will be delivered to Singapore Airlines by Airbus in mid-January. Its full entry into commercial service will occur on 30 March 2009, and to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the commencement of Singapore Airlines flights between the two cities, the first route will be between Singapore and Brisbane.

From April, services between Singapore and Perth will be progressively converted from the existing B777 operations to A330; conversion will be completed in May. The daily flight between Adelaide and Singapore will be converted by June. Also in June, following delivery of the eighth aircraft, the A330 will debut on Japan routes, with the daily service to Nagoya to be converted from B777 operations. By March 2010, the daily B777 service to Osaka will be replaced with the A330.

The A330-300 twin-engine wide-body aircraft will be configured with 285 seats in two classes - Business and Economy.

There is a new Business Class seat, especially designed for regional and medium-haul flights. The Business Class cabin will consist of 30 seats, in a 2-2-2 configuration (distinct from the existing B777 on these routes, which is in a 2-3-2 layout). Economy will feature 255 seats, in a 2-4-2 configuration.

Service (between Singapore and -) Date Freq (Per week)

Brisbane, SQ245/246 end March 2009 7

Brisbane, SQ235/236 end March 2009 7

Brisbane, SQ255/256* end March 2009 5

Perth, SQ224/225 April 2009 5

Perth, SQ223/226 May 2009 7

Perth, SQ215/216 May 2009 7

Adelaide, SQ268/269 June 2009 7

Nagoya, SQ671/672 June 2009 7

Osaka, SQ617/618 March 2010 7