Singapore Airlines A350 Upgrade for Cairns

Singapore Airlines will fly Airbus A350-900s to Cairns from 31 March 2024. The wide-body jet will replace the Boeing 737-8 MAX on the Singapore-Cairns route.

This is great news for Cairns-based flyers as the capacity increase is likely to lower airfares and result in greater award availability. This is especially the case for Business Class, as Singapore Airlines will soon offer 160 return Business seats on the route each week – a 313% increase over the current 50 seats per week!

Following this change, the number of weekly Cairns-Singapore flights will drop from five to four as the Saturday service will no longer be offered. However, the larger aircraft will result in an overall capacity increase on the route.

The larger Airbus A350 aircraft also flies faster than the Boeing 737, reducing flight times between Cairns and Singapore by around 20 minutes each way.

Singapore Airlines’ Singapore-Cairns service leaves Singapore in the morning, and returns from Cairns to Singapore in the late afternoon. The flights are perfectly timed to connect via Singapore with destinations in Europe and South Africa.

Lots of Business Saver award availability

If you’d like to redeem points or miles for a Business Class seat on the Cairns-Singapore route, we can currently see up to four award seats available on many dates.

You’ll be flying in Singapore Airlines’ regional Business Class product, with a lie-flat bed.

If you have Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, you could book a seat for 68,500 KrisFlyer miles + $106.36 in taxes per person, one-way.

Seats are also available to book using Virgin Australia Velocity points. A Velocity Reward Seat on the Cairns-Singapore route requires fewer points than an equivalent KrisFlyer award booking. However, Velocity adds a Singapore Airlines carrier charge so the cash co-payment is a bit higher.

Singapore Airlines is a member of Star Alliance. If you have points or miles with another Star Alliance frequent flyer program, such as United MileagePlus or Air Canada Aeroplan, you could also use those to book a Singapore Airlines Business Class seat between Cairns and Singapore.

There is also plenty of award availability in Economy Class, which is a comfortable option on the Airbus A350.

Other Singapore Airlines service increases to Australia

From the end of March 2024, Singapore Airlines will also boost services to several other Australian cities. This is what else is changing:

• Darwin-Singapore will increase from 5x weekly to a daily service
• Singapore Airlines will permanently add a fifth daily Melbourne-Singapore service
• One of the four daily Sydney-Singapore flights will be upgraded from an Airbus A350 to a Boeing 777-300ER, meaning all Sydney-Singapore flights will have First Class available
• Adelaide-Singapore is switching from an Airbus A350 to a Boeing 787-10 service
• Perth-Singapore will get an extra three weekly flights, bringing frequency on the route to 4x daily

That’s in addition to some seasonal service increases over the upcoming Australian summer.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.