Singapore Airlines to induct Airbus A330-300

Airbus A330-343E, F-WWKZ, CN 978, pictured here in the cold grey skies of Toulouse, France, will soon be heading to the lush tropical city-state of Singapore, as 9V-STA, and joining the fleet of Singapore Airlines, who will become the newest operator of the Airbus A330 aircraft.

Singapore Airlines will introduce its new Airbus A330-300, powered by Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines, in a mid-range regional aircraft, positioning, replacing the existing Boeing B777's, on routes to Australian and Japanese cities, progressively from end March 2009.

SQ A330 Seat Map
The aircraft will be configured with 285 seats in a two class configuration. 30 Raffles Class (Business Class) in a 2-2-2 abreast layout, and 255 in a 2-4-2 layout. The new cabin features will be revealed in January, but the aircraft does feature a new Business Class seat, specially designed for regional and medium-haul flights. All seats will feature the new KrisWorld, Singapore Airlines award-winning in-flight entertainment system.

The first of 19 new A330-300s will be delivered to Singapore Airlines by Airbus in mid-January. Initially, the aircraft will be used to complete pilot conversion, and thereafter, operate some short sectors between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore and Jakarta, during late February and March, to fine tune the crews and operations, but these cities will not continue with the A330's.

Singapore Airlines will use the A330's initially to select Australian cities (Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide) and then add Japan (Nagoya and Osaka).

Singapore Airlines will induct the A330's into commercial service on March 30, 2009, with an inaugural service to Brisbane, which marks the 25th anniversary of the commencement of Singapore Airlines services between Singapore and Brisbane.

The planned deployment of the A330-300 is:

End March 2009
Brisbane, SQ245/246, SQ235/236, daily
Brisbane, SQ255/256, 5 flights per week

April 2009
Perth, SQ224/225, 5 fights per week

May 2009
Perth, SQ223/226, SQ215/216, daily

June 2009
Adelaide, SQ268/269, daily
Nagoya, SQ671/672, daily

Then a long break till March 2010
Osaka, SQ617/618, daily

For more information visit the Singapore Airlines website.