SINGAPORE: SilkAir, the full-service regional wing of Singapore Airlines (SIA), will in March launch direct flights between the city-state and Darwin in Australia, it said Tuesday.
It will be SilkAir's first Australian destination and is part of an overall plan by parent company SIA to expand services to northern Australia, the airline said in a statement.
Starting March 26, SilkAir will fly four times a week to Darwin with next-day return flights, subject to regulatory approvals.
It will use Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft that will offer economy and business cabins, SilkAir said.
"This is a very significant move for us and will complement our parent company’s ongoing efforts to better serve the Australian market, which has been given a boost by its recently approved alliance with Virgin Australia," said chief executive Marvin Tan.
SIA and Virgin Australia announced in June a tie-up that will see the two carriers share flights, coordinate schedules and undertake joint sales and marketing programmes.
But the tie-up excludes the lucrative Australia-US sector, where SIA's bid to ply the trans-Pacific routes from Australia to the US West Coast has been denied repeatedly by Canberra.
SIA is launching a long-haul budget carrier called Scoot in mid-2012 with Sydney as its first destination from Singapore, underscoring the importance of the Australian market to the group.
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