Singapore Airlines could begin Airbus A380 flights between Singapore and Auckland this year following NZ government approval of its alliance with Air New Zealand.
The Competition Commission of Singapore has already rubber-stamped the proposal, which will see new routes opened up and existing services shared between the two Star Alliance flag-carriers.
Both airlines “will announce operational dates for alliance services shortly”, according to a joint statement.
When the partnership was first announced in January this year, the airlines said that “pending approval, flights could commence as early as December 2014.”
Singapore Airlines says its A380 superjumbo would fly daily between Singapore and Auckland, “progressively replacing an existing daily service with the smaller Boeing 777-300ER”
For its part, Air New Zealand will restart daily services between Auckland and Singapore – a route it axed in 2006 – with one of the Kiwi carrier’s refurbished Boeing 777-200ER jets.
This flight will operate daily, taking over five flights currently operated by Singapore Airlines and adding two more weekly flights under AirNZ’s own steam.
Passengers will transfer at Singapore to one of SQ’s four daily flights to London or the wealth of Singapore Airlines flights to other destinations in the UK, Europe, South East Asia and Africa. The codeshare agreement will also extend to Singapore Airlines’s regional offshoot SilkAir.
In return, Singapore Airlines will stamp its SQ flight code onto all domestic and selected international Air New Zealand flights.
Source : Australian Business Traveller
TV TOTAL 