Singapore Airlines (SIA) has chosen the 40th anniversary celebrations of its flights between Singapore and London Heathrow, to confirm plans to introduce an Airbus A380 on the third of its daily flights before the end of this year.

The carrier, then known as Malaysia-Singapore Airlines, launched flights between the two cities in June 1971 initially operating three flights per week with a Boeing 707, which made intermediate stops in Bombay and Bahrain due to range issues. It has subsequently seen rapid growth and now operates three daily flights, carrying more than 370,000 O&D passengers in the past 12 months, with many more connecting on to other Asian destinations from Changi International Airport.

SIA has a 55 per cent share of this annual 672,000 O&D passenger market and utilises its Airbus A380s on two of its daily flights. The remaining flight is currently operated by a 777-300ER but its newly appointed General Manager for the UK and Ireland, PheeTeik Yeoh, has confirmed that this service will also be upgraded to the A380. “With the arrival of our twelfth A380 expected by the end of the year, we will soon see all our London Heathrow services operating this state of the art aircraft,” he said.