Lufthansa A380 begins scheduled operations at Changi Airport

SINGAPORE, 31 October 2011 – Singapore Changi Airport today welcomes the commencement of Lufthansa’s A380 operations from Singapore to Frankfurt, the newest addition to Changi’s growing list of A380-connected destinations.  With a total of 188 weekly A380 flights to nine major cities – Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo and Zurich – Changi Airport is the world’s busiest multi-carrier A380 hub.

Lufthansa[1] will operate the A380 aircraft on an existing Singapore-Frankfurt service.  The daily flight departs Changi Airport at 2355 hours and arrives in Frankfurt at 0555 hours the following day.  The return flight leaves Frankfurt at 2205 hours and arrives in Singapore at 1655 hours the next day.  Lufthansa will operate the A380 at Changi Airport’s Terminal 2.

Mr Yam Kum Weng, Changi Airport Group’s Executive Vice President, Air Hub Development, said, “We are extremely pleased to welcome Lufthansa’s A380 operations to Changi Airport.  Just like Lufthansa’s launch of Changi’s inaugural service to Munich in 2008, this is another important milestone for us.  The additional capacity that the new A380 service brings to the Singapore-Germany route will not only meet the strong travel demand but also help to stimulate traffic between the two markets.”

For the 12 months ended August 2011, 348,000 passengers travelled between Singapore and Germany, an increase of 18.3% over the previous corresponding period.  At the same time, there were 2.37 million passengers who travelled between Singapore and Europe, a growth of 12.1%.

Eight airlines currently operate 340 weekly flights and 56,700 weekly one-way seats between Singapore and Europe.  Lufthansa’s A380 will increase the capacity between Singapore and Germany by an additional 1,400 weekly one-way seats.  This will be increased further when Singapore Airlines begins A380 operations on the Singapore-Frankfurt-New York route from 15 January 2012. 

World’s first airport to handle the A380

Changi Airport was the first in the world to handle the superjumbo when Singapore Airlines commenced A380 operations with an inaugural flight to Sydney on 25 October 2007.  Since then, more than 20,000 A380 flights have taken off or landed at Changi Airport. 

To handle the world’s largest passenger aircraft, Changi Airport underwent several airport and airfield modifications including lengthening of baggage claim belts to provide longer frontage for the presentation of bags, widening of runway shoulders to protect the A380’s engines as well as the installation of a third aerobridge arm at each of 19 A380-compatible gates.  The third arm enables passengers to have direct access to the upper deck of the double-decker aircraft and shortens boarding time for passengers.

Changi Airport-Lufthansa A380 competition

To celebrate Lufthansa’s inaugural A380 service to Singapore, Changi Airport Group and Lufthansa organised a photo competition on Facebook to select ten finalists who competed in a scavenger hunt held at Changi Airport last Saturday.  Together with a partner, the ten finalists competed in a series of challenges which tested their knowledge of Changi Airport, Lufthansa and Germany.

The winners of the competition have each won a return Business Class ticket to their dream European destination.  They will travel to the destination via Frankfurt and will experience Lufthansa’s A380 service on-route.

[1] Besides Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Qantas also operate A380 services from Changi Airport Terminals 3 and 1 respectively.