BTR_CDN

I'm kind of optimistic about the CBR-SIN portion. Lots of people in CBR are already travelling to Asia and Europe and this flight seems way more preferable to making the connection in Sydney where you have to catch a bus between the domestic and international terminal, then clear immigration and then re-clear security. At a minimum, it knocks around 2 hours and 45 minutes if you're flying or 3 hours+ if you take the bus to Sydney off of a trip each way, that is already going to be ridiculously long.

Two other things to consider...
1.) Canberra has a potentially extremely large drawing area for their airport. I'm guessing that for a lot of families, it is going to be a lot cheaper to drive to Canberra and catch the flight rather than driving to Melbourne or Sydney.
2.) The route should be helped by lots of government travelers that need to travel to or from Canberra (e.g. Federal + ACT workers based in Canberra) or Wellington. It also helps that there are 2 major universities in Canberra that produce a lot of travelers plus some smaller universities/colleges in the region.

I'm curious on what the Wellington to Canberra segment needs to survive. Presumably most of the passengers to/from Wellington will be travelers going to/from Europe/Asia and looking to dodge the mess that is the terminal change and need to clear immigration and biosecurity in Auckland. I'd note that Christchurch is smaller than Wellington and is able to support flights from China, several Australian cities, Singapore, and analogous flights to this one on Emirates (CHC-SYD-BKK-DUB) and China Airlines (CHC-MEL-Taipei). It could be a good tourist route, basically drive from Sydney or Melbourne to the other place and then on to Canberra and then fly over to New Zealand. The other thing to note is that it is an 8 hour drive from Auckland to Wellington which will make it a pretty decent option for the people living on the southern half of the North Island.

kamchatsky

Official press release from Singapore Airlines:

Capital Express' Service To Connect Singapore, Canberra And Wellington

http://www.singaporeair.com/jsp/cms/...316-160120.jsp

lokijuh

Flight isn't really that convenient for most of Europe, due to timings. It seems to be more about taking traffic from CBR/WLG - Asia (or those travelling to Europe with stopovers in SIN). The only flight connection that vaguely works is LHR ... it will be a 3hr connection outbound (CBR-LHR) and 5 hr connection inbound (LHR-CBR)

djsflynn

Exactly so. Multiple frequencies ex-SIN like LHR are an easy get, but for the most part SQ sees this route as providing pax with an end-stop in SIN or feeding onwards to Asia.

Kiwi Flyer

Christchurch is the gateway to South Island so gets loads of tourists. Wellington is almost the end of the line so won't get tourist traffic to anything like the same level.

I don't know anyone who would drive between Auckland and Wellington to catch international flights. Nearly everyone flies via Auckland, and some fly via Christchurch.

WLG Base

BTR_CDN

I totally get Christchurch being the gateway to the South Island. On the other hand, maybe this flight to Wellington grabs some of the people who want to visit the North Island and don't particularly have a great need to see Auckland.

Sorry, I may not have been clear. I don't think that people would drive between Auckland and Wellington to catch international flights. On the other hand, if you live halfway between those two cities (or closer), I suspect that there are going to be quite a few people <by NZ standards> who are going to drive to one airport or the other to catch an international flight rather than pay a few hundred dollars extra per person for that short extra hop. The new flight from Wellington will be a really tempting option for families within about a 4 hour drive of Wellington....

thadocta

Just asking this more as a VA flyer, rather than an SQ flyer.

The 23:00 departure from SIN seems pretty good to me, but the 05:50 arrival into SIN could be a problem.

Again, as someone who is not a major SQ passenger, but a VA passenger (and therefore uses SQ as a partner) what are the options for this flight, both into SIN to connect with 291, or to connect out with 292?

291 departing at 23:00 sort of seems ok, but 292 arriving at 05:50 could be problematic.

LHR has been mentioned as the only viable connection to Europe from 292, given the time of day though there would be plenty of connections to north Asia though, so not worried about them.

How long for ME, rest of Europe and Africa?

Also, what about connections onto 291? Anything from anywhere providing viable connections?

I actually think this flight will work quite well, particularly the SIN-CBR part, as it allows passengers the ability to avoid the DOM-INT transfer process in SYD, which is not (by an order of magnitude) the best transfer process in the world.

Dave

kevinoh

All Europe, Middle East (DXB, IST) and JNB-CPT flights depart SIN between 10pm-2am. Likewise for inbound it is in the early morning around 5-8am...

SIN-FRA has a 2pm flight, which is an 8 hour connection. Inbound from FRA is 6 hours.

lokijuh

No other connections to these parts of the world (in fact SQ shortly will only have single destination in the ME anyway - DXB - when Jeddah is handed over to Scoot).

I guess they want to build this service around Asian destinations, that way they don't risk the rug being pulled from under them when EK or QR decides to launch a service to CBR

leogeo

Connections would be more suited for NA, SEA and WAA destinations. And SQ 308 to LHR but flights from LHR (SQ 321) will have a close to 5 hr transit in SIN when going onward to CBR.

kevinoh

Interestingly, can the ME3 fly direct to their hubs from CBR? It's 14hrs westbound to the Middle East compared to 8 hours to SIN. A one-stop service in SEA will make the ME3 option less appealing for travelers to Europe via their hub.

BTR_CDN

It would seem plausible, assuming the runway is long enough. CBR is used as a back-up airport for SYD when SYD is closed for whatever reasons. I know that we've had 747 and 777 here. Just not sure if they can take off with a full fuel load. Also, Emirates and Etihad already go to Sydney,

Jma12

I am actually looking forward to the 5th freedom flight from CRB-WLG!

Amelorn

I remember when some initial talks about this were reported in the Aussie press a couple of years ago.

I am surprised to see a 772. Armchair Expert Me would have guessed an A330.