Singapore Airlines eyes Wellington-Canberra flights

Singapore Airlines is eyeing services between Wellington and Canberra.
The service would then fly on to Singapore using an Airbus A330 aircraft.

The airline is understood to have been in discussions with Wellington Airport, which says it can't comment on what airlines may or may not be doing.

Singapore Airlines said today it was "continuously evaluating new route opportunities" to provide more travel options and to support the further development of the Singapore hub.

"However, beyond our recent announcement that we will be introducing Singapore-Dusseldorf services in 2016, we have no new route plans to announce at this stage."

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But aviation sources in this country say an announcement is imminent which would be a coup for Wellington as it seeks support to extend its runway and for Canberra which is limited to domestic flights and also has growth ambitions.

Other airlines have examined linking the political capitals which would have good support from politicians and government departments.

According to the Australian Financial Review the service would run four times a week.

The airline has a fleet of 27 A330-300s which have 30 business class seats and 255 in economy. Singapore Airlines currently operates 14 round-trip flights from Auckland and Christchurch to Singapore a week.

In January 2015 it launched an alliance with Air New Zealand, with the airlines codesharing services between New Zealand and Singapore.

Malaysian-based low cost carrier AirAsia is due today to announce services to Auckland, via the Gold Coast.

The airline has flown here before but withdrew services to Christchurch when demand dropped after the 2011 earthquakes.