SINGAPORE AIRLINES: Adds more Brisbane flights from August

From 6 August, Singapore Airlines will add four more flights to its 21 flights per week between Brisbane and Singapore. The additional flights on the Star Alliance carrier will run on Tuesday, Thrusday, Saturday and Sunday. That makes four flights on those days between Brisbane and Singapore.

The additional flights are:

• SQ266 leaves Brisbane 6:10 pm, arrives Singapore 12:10am (next day).
• SQ265 leaves Singapore 7:00 am, arrives Brisbane at 4:35 pm.

Flights will be operated with an Airbus A350 fitted with 40 regional business class seats. These have lie-flat recline, which is great on this less than 8-hour flight.

The increase in flights has the support of the AU$200 million Attracting Aviation Investment Fund . Run by the Queensland Government, The fund subsidises airlines and airports to foster greater frequency of flights to Queensland.

Singapore Airlines runs 126 flights per week between Singapore and Australian cities. They include services to Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Brisbane Airport

As Australia’s population moves from the Southern states to Queensland, we can expect airlines to provide increased capacity to the Sunshine State. To support increased traffic, Brisbane Airport really needs to make some improvements to its airport facilities. Better links between its domestic and international terminal would be a good start.

In the Airport Master Plan there are a number of mentions of a Mass Transit System which would join the two terminals, and the proposed third. The nature of the system is not outlined in detail. Also proposed is an integration with the Metro system, that would provide public transport into Brisbane.

There is a lot of talk about ‘safeguarding the corridor’ committed to in the 2014 master plan, and that ‘Brisbane Airport Corporation investigates potential mass transit options’ but not a lot of detail. Mass transit is talked about as a ‘future’ plan, not ‘current’ where it ought to be.

‘guided and pneumatic tyre track systems were judged to be the most appropriate choice beyond buses based on their constructibility and passenger carrying capacity

P368 Brisbane Airport 2020 Master Plan

2PAXfly Takeout

More flights from Singapore Airlines to Brisbane is a good thing. It will improve direct services between Brisbane and Singapore, and save some travellers from having to transit through Sydney or other airports to get to Singapore.

However, Brisbane Airport still needs to address some fundamental issues at their facility and one of those is transit between international and domestic terminal which currently has to be done by bus.

In my opinion addressing the transfer between international and domestic terminals would be a great improvement to the ‘passenger experience’ as they are so fond of saying.