SIA’s 30-year record

In a busy week for Manchester Airport, Singapore Airlines (SIA) added to the festivities on Friday to mark the 30th anniversary of its first scheduled flight arriving there, having departed Singapore the night before. 

The airline has maintained continuous service ever since, ma king it Manchester’s longest serving long-haul carrier. Friday’s celebrations were also to mark the success of the lengthy lobbying campaign 30 years ago that was required to gain permission for the new route to be launched in the first place.

Manchester remains the only hub outside London that the airline flies to in the UK. In 1986, the service was twice-weekly, operated by a Boeing 747-300 Combi aircraft. Since then, five different SIA aircraft types have plied the route. Today’s daily service operates via Munich using the B777-300ER featuring the latest cabin interiors and SIA's new Premium Economy Class.

SIA aircraft on the route have spent more than 100,000hr in the air and covered more than 50m miles. Similarly, over the past 30 years Manchester Airport has gone from one runway and one terminal to two runways and three terminals, servicing 23.3m passengers (from 7.5m in 1986) and seeing 174,000 aircraft movements (from 80,367 in 1986) each year.   www.singaporeair.com

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