Singapore non-stop from canberra

Singapore Airlines made history last months with the highly anticipated debut of its new ‘Capital Express’ service, linking Singapore to Canberra and Wellington. Despite inclement weather on arrival, Canberra Airport added to the precipitation with a water cannon celebration to mark the arrival of the aircraft marking the first time Australia’s and New Zealand’s capital cities had ever been connected. Singapore Airlines executive vice president commercial, Mr Mak Swee Wah, said the inaugural was a key milestone in the airline’s long history in Australia - complementing its already extensive network linking Australian cities to Singapore which includes flights from Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney - along with Silkair services from Cairns and Darwin and Scoot, which serves the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. The new route provides an intriguing option for travellers from the buoyoant ACT leisure market as well as a convenient new option for public servants, politicians and lobbyists to access the globe via SQ’S Singapore hub. Singapore Airlines has confirmed that premium passengers travelling from Canberra to either Wellington or Singapore on the four times weekly 777-200 flights will have access to the Virgin Australia lounge at CBR. It’s the first international flight to serve Canberra since a brief foray by Fiji Airways offering non-stop flights to Nadi in 2004. Singapore Airlines senior vice president of sales and marketing, Campbell Wilson, said flights to the Australian capital were a logical expansion of the SQ network given the development of Canberra airport and the maturity of the local market. If the route proves successful Singapore Airlines hopes to lift frequencies to daily, he added. Meanwhile Canberra Airport owner Terry Snow said the flights would help locals avoid the “dysfunctional travel” they normally put up with via Sydney.