Melbourne Airport has welcomed the announcement by Singapore Airlines to add a second daily Melbourne-Singapore A380 service.

Melbourne Airport CEO, Chris Woodruff, said that Melbourne was ready for increased A380 services.

“Melbourne Airport was the first airport in Australia to be A380 ready and we are continuing to invest in our infrastructure and facilities to support the growth of A380 services to Melbourne.  We have opened two additional international gates and upgraded more of our aerobridges to be A380 capable.”

“We have invested almost $50 million in two additional baggage reclaim units in our international arrivals area which adds to our A380 capability.”

“For the past few years, Melbourne Airport has experienced strong international passenger growth and our curfew free status plays a large part in this growth and in attracting new services to Melbourne.  Combined with our single terminal precinct, our curfew free status provides airlines and passengers flexibility and convenience.  This is particularly important for our growth markets such as Asia where Melbourne, and Australia, are part of a global network,” said Mr Woodruff.

“As a leading, full service international carrier, Singapore Airlines’ decision to introduce an extra daily A380 service to Melbourne is a great vote of confidence in our city and state as a global destination.”

“The additional daily service is also important for Victoria’s tourism industry and we will continue to work with Team Melbourne and our airline customers to attract new services and additional capacity to Melbourne.”

Singapore Airlines’ second daily A380 Melbourne-Singapore service commences on 16 August.