Wellington-Canberra flights confirmed

The route will not involve codesharing with Singapore Airlines’ Star Alliance partner Air New Zealand, though Virgin Australia will codeshare the flight’s Canberra-Singapore leg.

Canberra airport was privatised in 1998 when it was purchased by the Capital Airport Group, headed by prominent local businessman Terry Snow.

Mai Chen, Chair of New Zealand Asian Leaders, today welcomed the announcement of the new air route linking Wellington and Singapore.

Return economy tickets between Canberra and Singapore will cost from $650 and passengers travelling between Canberra and Wellington will pay fares from $469.

SIA will use Boeing 777-200s fitted with 38 business class and 228 economy class seats.

A share of the lucrative tourism traffic from south-east Asia and China to Australia and New Zealand is perhaps the most obvious pay-off from the Singapore Airlines announcement.

“We called ourselves the Canberra International Airport – we cut it out recently because it was a bit of a joke – but we called ourselves (an) international airport because that was our aspiration”, he said.

“It connects two cool, little capitals (with Singapore)”.

The new “Capital Express” route will provide the city with two direct global destination options, with flights operating between Canberra-Singapore and Canberra-Wellington.

The flights are subject to regulatory approval.

The world is now on Canberra’s doorstep – and there’s no need for a “demeaning” Sydney stopover.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr described the announcement as a “game-changer” for the capital.

Now departing: Singapore Airlines will begin services to Canberra in September.

Improving Wellington’s worldwide connectivity has been a priority for the city for some time, he says.