Today Singapore Airlines celebrates its 40th year of service from London Heathrow Airport. To celebrate the milestone, customers can take advantage of the Singapore Airlines special Business and Economy Class fares running until 15 June 2011. For further information please visit: www.singaporeair.com.

First beginning operations from the London hub in June 1971 with a three times weekly service operated by Malaysia-Singapore Airlines, the Singapore-London Heathrow route used B707 aircraft and included stops at Bombay and Bahrain. Rapid expansion saw Singapore Airlines introduce both new aircraft models to the route, as well as pioneer the advancement to a non-stop service. The current service now flies three times daily using two A380 and a Boeing B777-300ER aircrafts.

PheeTeik Yeoh, Singapore Airlines’ newly appointed General Manager for the UK and Ireland, commented on the anniversary: “Since 1971, when Malaysia-Singapore Airlines first started operations from London Heathrow, we have continued to grow and upgrade our service and still remain committed to growth in the UK. With the arrival of our twelfth A380 expected by the end of the year, we will soon see all our London Heathrow services operating this state of the art aircraft, enabling more of our customers to experience our unique product offering and award-winning service.”

Nick Cullen, Heathrow’s Chief Operating Officer said: “Singapore Airlines is world-renowned for its excellence in service and quality product offering and plays a key role in providing crucial trading links to Asia from Heathrow, the UK’s only hub airport. Their 40 years here have seen plenty of breakthroughs for passengers and, in particular, they were the first airline to bring the Airbus A380 to Heathrow. We are proud to celebrate this anniversary with Singapore Airlines and look forward to the developments that the next 40 years are sure to bring.”

Over the last 40 years, Singapore Airlines has seen many exciting milestones at London Heathrow, most notably the introduction of the first scheduled non-stop flight from London Heathrow to Singapore using the B747-300 Big Top in 1984 with a three times weekly service. This was then followed by the arrival of the B747-400 Mega Top in 1988.

Perhaps most notable was the launch of Concorde on the London-Singapore route in 1977 operating in conjunction with British Airways; a route which initially included four stops between London and Singapore.

Most recently, Singapore Airlines celebrated another great milestone in being the first airline to take delivery of, and fly, the ground breaking A380. The occasion was marked with a London launch of the new aircraft on 18 March 2008.