Category: Airlines

Painted in the airline’s updated orange-tail livery, as seen on its A321neo LR fleet, the 188-seat VH-A5A is the first of five A320neos slated to arrive by the end of the 2025 financial year and will be based in Melbourne.

The route, first launched in 2022, will operate twice weekly on Thursdays and Sundays from 23 January to the end of April, using 34-seater Saab 340B+ aircraft.

Starting in the upcoming northern summer season, commencing 30 March, the SQ254 service on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays will depart Darwin at 1:55am, arriving in Singapore at 5:10am local time, which the airline says will enable better connectivity.

The low-cost carrier will operate three A320 flights per week from 2 July to 24 October 2025, for a total of more than 18,000 seats during the winter season.

The aircraft, VH-A5A, touched down in Melbourne at 11:41pm on Sunday, 24 November, having flown via Kuala Lumpur according to data from FlightRadar24. It was spotted in flight testing late last month at Airbus’ facility in France.

Interstate return airfares to and from Darwin can cost up to $1,500, ABC’s Stateline reported this week, with customers reporting high prices even when booking half a year in advance. Both major airlines have denied they are gouging passengers.

The Saab 340A, VH-KDK, was in the middle of a repositioning flight from Wagga Wagga to Charleville on 23 April 2023 when the cockpit filled with smoke, forcing the pilots to divert to Cobar.