Carry On: World's longest flights cancelled

World’s longest flights cancelled
Singapore will soon no longer be a non-stop flight away from North America on the two of the world’s longest commercial routes. Singapore Airlines (SIA) says the all-business class elite services to Newark and Los Angeles will cease by the end of the year.

The Singapore-Newark flight covers 9506 nautical miles (15,343 km) and takes about 18.5 hours flying via the North Pole. The shorter Singapore-Los Angeles route is 8746nm and lasts about 16 hours. A round trip on the former costs about $US10,260 and the other about $US7300.

SIA has operated the flights, which use 98-seat A340-500 aircraft, since 2004. The planes will be handed back to Airbus as part of a deal announced this week that involves five more Airbus A380 superjumbos and another 20 A350s, the new generation plane that will compete with Boeings 787 Dreamliners.

SIA will continue to serve North America with its existing A380 flights to New York through Frankfurt and to  Los Angeles via Tokyo.

The longest commercial flights will go to a Qantas route between Sydney and Dallas-Fort Worth while the longest duration flight will be the Delta Airlines flight between Atlanta and Johannesburg lasting about 17 hours.

Singapore ramps up in Australia
Meanwhile, in Australia, SIA is ramping up its services to Adelaide from Singapore to 12 a week from next July, after moving from daily flights to 10 a week. SIA will have 112 weekly flights to Australia by year's end.

The eventual aim is to go to twice-daily services to Adelaide, while in Perth, SIA also reports strong demand on its four daily flights using Boeing 777s with more business-class seats.

SIA is also building A380 flights into Sydney and Melbourne with a second superjumbo service to Melbourne.

Air NZ wins leading airline gong
Air New Zealand has won the title of Australasia’s Leading Airline for the fourth year in a row at the World Travel Awards in Singapore. These recognise the greatest contribution to the travel industry over the past year.

Other notable New Zealand winners this year include Auckland as Australasia’s Leading Destination and Tourism New Zealand as Australasia’s Leading Tourism Board.

“For Air New Zealand be recognised as the number one airline in Australasia not once, but four times is quite extraordinary,” CEO Rob Fyfe says.

Winners of the Australasian awards will be put forward for the WTA Grand Final with global winners announced in New Delhi, India, on December 12.

Luxury cruiser for Galápagos
Cruise company Silversea says the refurbishment of Galapagos Explorer II in September 2013 will add a second small-sized expedition ship to its fleet. The all-suite, 100-guest vessel will be renamed Silver Galápagos and match the standard of Silver Explorer.

Silver Galápagos will be the only luxury expedition ship offering socially and environmentally responsible ecotourism to the Galápagos archipelago, a Unesco World Heritage Site. Silversea says this will broaden its portfolio of expedition cruises tailored to tap into the rising interest in green tourism.

Silversea has also started selling its 2013 Galápagos programme with two new seven-day itineraries from late September 2013:

• Sailing a Saturday to Saturday round trip from Baltra Island, Silver Galapagos will trace a path across the western, southern and eastern islands, including Santiago, Bartolomé, Isabela, Fernandina, Floreana, San Cristóbal and Santa Cruz.

• Sailing Saturday to Saturday round trip also from Baltra Island, the second itinerary encompasses the northeast, central and southeast islands of Santa Cruz, Genovesa, Seymour Norte, San Cristóbal, Española, and Plazas Sur.