Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand bring in bigger plane, boost NZ services

Singapore Airlines is increasing its capacity to and from New Zealand next year with more seats to Auckland and Christchurch. The airline and codeshare partner Air New Zealand currently jointly operate three services a day between Auckland and Singapore, with Air New Zealand using a Boeing 787-9. From March 31 next year, the second daily Air New Zealand service will use a Boeing 777-300ER, which will add another 17,000 seats over the NZ winter months. From October 2024, the two airlines plan to jointly operate four daily flights between Auckland and Singapore. Subject to regulatory approval, the additional direct service will use an Airbus A350-900 providing more than 1700 seats on the route each week. That will see the airline partners jointly exceed their combined pre-Covid capacity on the route. The fourth service will depart Singapore at 00:25 local time and arrive in Auckland at 15:20. The return service, SQ288, will depart Auckland at 17:15 and arrive back at Singapore Changi Airport at 22:40. In addition to more flights from Auckland, the partners will also mount a three-times weekly supplementary service to Christchurch, operated by Singapore Airlines, across the busy end-of-year travel period, subject to regulatory approval. Currently the airline flies one to two daily flights to Christchurch from Singapore.<br/>