The Capital Express Route was an air route operated by

Singapore Airlines Singapore Airlines ( abbreviation: SIA) is the flag carrier airline of the Republic of Singapore with its hub located at Singapore Changi Airport. The airline is notable for highlighting the Singapore Girl as its central figure in corporat ...

between

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

and

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

via Canberra. It linked the capitals of three countries – Singapore, Australia and New Zealand – hence the name. The route was launched on 21 September 2016 using the

Boeing 777-200ER The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet. The 777 was designed to bridge the gap betw ...

aircraft, and the carrier became the first airline with flights between Canberra and Wellington. A report by Australia's Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics showed that the average load factor for the sector between Singapore and Canberra was about 83% in the early months of the service. On 24 January 2018, the carrier announced a restructuring of the route which saw the sector between Canberra and Wellington being delinked. From 1 May 2018, Canberra was served via Sydney operating on a Singapore-Sydney-Canberra-Singapore routing. From 3 May 2018, Wellington was served via

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

on a Singapore-Melbourne-Wellington-Melbourne-Singapore routing. Since 1 November 2019 till its suspension, flights to Wellington were operated with the

Airbus A350 The Airbus A350 is a long-range, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner developed and produced by Airbus. The first A350 design proposed by Airbus in 2004, in response to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, would have been a development of the A330 ...

. On 14 September 2020, it was announced that both cities would be suspended from regular service due to a drop in demand arising from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

References

Airline routes Singapore Airlines {{Singapore Airlines