Air New Zealand starts non-stop flights between Christchurch and Singapore on 28 October 2026, with three services a week on its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. The route runs until 26 March 2027 and adds 34,300 seats between the two cities over the season.
Fifteen flights a week to Christchurch at the peak
Singapore Airlines already flies daily to Christchurch all year. For the summer season it adds three extra services a week, rising to five a week in the busiest period. With Air New Zealand’s new flights, the two partner airlines will run 15 weekly services between Singapore and Christchurch from November 2026 to February 2027.
Air New Zealand last flew between Christchurch and Singapore in 2020. The return is possible because the airline’s 787s are coming back into service after a grounding over global engine maintenance issues, and new 787s are joining the fleet.
More seats to Auckland and an A380 on SQ285
The Christchurch launch is part of a wider expansion of the joint Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines network for the Northern Winter season, which runs from 25 October 2026 to 27 March 2027. Air New Zealand is also adding four weekly Auckland services using its Boeing 777 and 787 aircraft.
Singapore Airlines is cutting its Auckland schedule from three daily flights to two, but is putting the Airbus A380 on daily services SQ285 and SQ286 in place of the Boeing 777-300ER. The A380 carries 471 seats across four cabins:
- Six Suites
- 78 Business Class seats
- 44 Premium Economy Class seats
- 343 Economy Class seats
Together, the changes raise seat capacity between Singapore and New Zealand by 17 per cent from late October, an extra 72,000 seats, for a total of more than 490,000 seats over the season.
Two more Christchurch routes this summer
Singapore is the first of three new international routes Air New Zealand is opening from Christchurch. Flights to Tokyo Narita start on 28 November and run until 8 May 2027, and flights to Perth start on 30 November and run until 7 May 2027. All three use the 787-9.
The routes come out of an agreement between Air New Zealand and Christchurch Airport to grow international links into the South Island, which includes a memorandum of understanding on long-term network planning and customer experience.
Flights are on sale on the Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines websites, and all services are subject to regulatory approval.
