Singapore Airlines has recently changed the destination of their trans-Tasman flight out of Wellington, from Canberra to Melbourne. The departure time has also changed to an early/ mid-afternoon departure [around 13:45 - the inbound flight arrives from Melbourne just after midday.]. They still get the ratepayer subsidy for the flight which is likely to annoy Air New Zealand and Qantas as they also fly this route, without and ratepayer subsidy...
Here are some photos of today's departure. First up, taking off on runway 34, the nose is off the ground before 1/2 way...
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| Boeing 777-212/ER, 9V-SRO, operated by Singapore Airlines |
... and airborne before taxiway M4, off into what appear to be dark clouds. It's not really as bad as it looks today...
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| Boeing 777-212/ER, 9V-SRO, operated by Singapore Airlines |
... and off they go. Looks like the local bird population was woken up though.
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| Boeing 777-212/ER, 9V-SRO, operated by Singapore Airlines |
4 comments:
Arrives round midday!
You caught me being lazy :-( I've updated the post :-)
"... likely to annoy Air New Zealand and Qantas"? How about "totally certain to annoy the ratepayers of Wellington, who would rather not subsidise a highly successful airline"?
I saw one of the SQ 777s take off on 16 on Friday. Used quite a lot of runway, it seemed to me.
Hi Andrew. Yes, and that, in reality, is my main gripe. The subsidy was promoted as bringing a new airline and a new route (the "Capital Connection"). Unfortunately, it has become a subsidy to compete against other established airlines on a route they don't maintain a full schedule on all year round.
As has been pointed out elsewhere, Air NZ has had its share of subsidy in the past, and their tactics in crushing the competition are well enough known, so it's hard for them to complain. As for SQ, it's the deal they negotiated, so fair enough for them.
I think the long-suffering ratepayers of Wellington could do with a break though... maybe some new negotiators are in order? Maybe there's more to the story? Who knows - certainly we won't be told...!
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