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The A380 is the world’s largest passenger plane.
There’s another big bird back in our skies.
Singapore Airlines’ flagship superjumbo A380 returns to Auckland on Thursday, the first time since 2020 when services were suspended after New Zealand closed its borders during the pandemic.
It’s the world’s largest passenger plane and has a whopping wingspan of 79.8 metres.
The only other A380 to fly to New Zealand belongs to Emirates, on its route from Dubai to Auckland, and Dubai to Christchurch via Sydney.
Flight SQ285 is scheduled to touch down in Auckland from Singapore at 1.20pm, with the return flight SQ286 set to depart Auckland at 3.15pm.
The Singapore Airlines double-decker plane has six luxury private suites, 78 business class seats, 44 premium economy seats and 343 “ergonomically designed” economy seats.
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Inside the luxury suites on Singapore Airlines’ A380.
The airline, along with its codeshare partner Air New Zealand, currently jointly operate three services a day between Auckland and Singapore. Air New Zealand uses a Boeing 787-9, and Singapore Airlines’ A380 is replacing the A350-900 for the summer period until March 31 to provide additional capacity over the year-end peak in New Zealand.
From March 31 next year, the second daily Air New Zealand service will use a Boeing 777-300ER.
By the end of 2024, a fourth daily service will be added between the two airlines, subject to regulatory approval. That flight will be operated by Singapore Airlines on the A350-900. That additional service will add more than 1700 seats on the route each week.
In addition to more flights from Auckland, the partners will also mount a three-times weekly supplementary service to Christchurch, operated by Singapore Airlines, across the busy end-of-year travel period, subject to regulatory approval.
Currently, the airline flies one to two daily flights to Christchurch from Singapore.
Brook Sabin / Stuff
We test the Emirates A380 Business Class.
Earlier this year, the Emirates A380 returned to Christchurch as the route to Dubai, via Sydney, restarted, and the flight was welcomed by plenty of plane enthusiasts watching from a nearby paddock.
The A380 that flies to Christchurch has four classes – first, business, premium economy and economy – and can hold 484 passengers.
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