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United States
Asia Pacific
SIA unveils A380 Heathrow roll-out
Singapore Airlines will place an A380 on the Heathrow to Singapore midday flight by March.
Speaking at WTM in London, general manager UK and Ireland Marvin Tan said the airline was waiting for BAA to make the necessary changes to Terminal 3 while various alterations also need to be made to the on-board service.
SIA, which launched its first A380 on the Singapore-Sydney route last month, takes delivery of a second super jumbo in December or early January. This will be used on the Heathrow route.
Following the delivery of a third aircraft by the middle of 2008, SIA will be able to operate a daily A380 service on the Heathrow-Singapore route.
Tan said this was likely to be the late night flight from Heathrow which connects with the Singapore-Sydney A380 flight, allowing UK passengers to fly all the way to Sydney on the new aircraft.
SIA also operates another two flights a day from Heathrow, but Tan said it was too early to say when all three daily flights will be operated by the A380.
“The A380 is the only way we can increase our capacity from Heathrow as we cannot get the slots,” he added.
“We are in talks to obtain more slots but for now we can only expand through the larger aircraft.”
He said flights from Singapore to Tokyo’s Narita, Melbourne and San Francisco will also eventually be served by the A380.
Meanwhile, SIA’s parent Temasek has signed an agreement to buy a 24% stake in China Eastern Airlines.
The deal, which still needs approval from China Eastern’s minor shareholders, will allow SIA to build a base in Shanghai and to challenge Cathay Pacific on routes out of China.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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