Wellington Chamber of Commerce welcomes the news that Singapore Airlines is introducing one of the world’s most modern aircraft to its Wellington-Melbourne-Singapore service.
"This is a real vote of confidence in Wellington and its ability to draw tourists, and will be of huge benefit to regional companies doing business in Asia," says chief executive John Milford.
"But it even goes further than that because Singapore is a key link on to Europe, so companies working up there will also benefit.
"This follows the announcement last month that Singapore Airlines will increase the service to five times a week from January.
"Clearly, it’s working for them to have made this investment.
"It’s certainly working for Wellington. For example, it’s estimated that in the three years since Singapore Airlines have been coming here there has been a 35 per cent increase in Asian tourists, much of it I suspect due to the airline promoting Wellington across its network.
"That’s exposure Wellington would not otherwise have had and upgrading to the Airbus A350-900 with its premium economy and state-of-the-art entertainment system is likely to boost that even further."
