Industry

Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines expand joint network with increased capacity

Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines will significantly expand their joint network between New Zealand and Singapore for the Northern Winter 2026 season (25 October 2026 to 27 March 2027), increasing overall capacity into Auckland and introducing new non-stop flights into Christchurch on Air New Zealand to complement SIA’s existing services.

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Air New Zealand will launch 3 weekly services between Singapore and Christchurch during the 2026 Northern Winter season, with its Boeing 787 aircraft. Combined with SIA’s existing Christchurch operations of up to 12 weekly services, the two airlines will operate 15 weekly services during the peak months from November 2026 to February 2027.

Air New Zealand will also add 4 weekly Auckland services utilising both its Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft. SIA will adjust its schedule from three daily flights to two and will deploy the Airbus A380 on daily services SQ285 and SQ286 during the 2026 Northern Winter season, instead of the Boeing 777-300ER.


SIA’s A380, which has 471 seats in four cabin classes – six in Suites, 78 in Business Class, 44 in Premium Economy Class, and 343 in Economy Class – will provide customers with enhanced travel comfort.

It will also support the demand for travel between New Zealand and Singapore, as well as key markets beyond Singapore in the SIA network. Customers will continue to benefit from the increased overall seat capacity and a broad range of travel options across the joint Air New Zealand-SIA network.

With these adjustments, the SIA-Air New Zealand alliance will increase overall seat capacity between Singapore and New Zealand by 17% from late October 2026, adding 72,000 seats and bringing the total seat count to more than 490,000 seats during the 2026 Northern Winter season.