The Qantas Group will return to the Singapore – Darwin route this year, but not with its mainline division nor its Jetstar low-cost subsidiary, as you might expect, but with the surprise use of a regional jet in the “Red Roo’s” colours at Changi Airport five days per week from December 2024.

Services on the route, formerly operated by Jetstar Asia until 2022 and before that by Qantas itself until 2006, will be flown by a QantasLink Embraer 190 regional jet, a division of the group better known for connecting secondary cities within Australia to larger hubs.

“We’re thrilled to be offering our customers another new international route out of Darwin and strengthening the important trade, business and tourism links between Australia and Singapore.”

Cam Wallace, CEO, Qantas International

Flights will be operated under the QantasLink brand by the airline’s regional subsidiary Alliance Air.

With only 94 seats, this will be Changi Airport’s smallest passenger aircraft service, with sub-100-seat aircraft not seen operating at the airport since Firefly’s move to Seletar with its ATR 72 service to KL’s Subang Airport.

It won’t be Changi’s first regional jet service of course, with SIA’s low-cost subsidiary Scoot set to launch its 112-seat Embraer E190-E2 flights from the airport as early as March 2024, though no routes have been confirmed yet.

The schedule

Here’s how the schedule looks for the new Qantas flights between Singapore and Darwin, with a flight time of 4 hours 50 minutes in each direction.

Qantas
Singapore – Darwin
(from 9 December 2024)

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	QF354 E190
SIN 22:25		DRW 04:45*
Duration: 04:50
	QF353 E190
DRW 18:05		SIN 21:25
Duration: 04:50

* Next day

Flights will operate to and from Terminal 1 at Changi Airport, with eligible passengers able to take advantage of the Qantas Business and First lounges there.

Arrival into Singapore is designed to coincide with the departure of the airline’s QF1 Singapore – London service, with a two-hour connection time, while in the opposite direction passengers arriving into Singapore from London on QF2 will be able to transit at Changi for around five hours, before heading on to Darwin.

The flights will provide Territorians with a direct Qantas option to Singapore and also a seamless connection to London on QF1, as well as other destinations across Europe or Asia with partner airlines. Qantas customers travelling from Darwin will save around five hours in flying time by no longer having to fly via other Australian capital cities to get to London.

Qantas

Services on this route are due to increase to daily from March 2025, and are subject to government and regulatory approvals.

The Singapore – Darwin route is currently exclusive to Singapore Airlines, with the carrier operating five times weekly Boeing 737-8 MAX flights on the route, increasing to daily from late March 2024.

In contrast to Qantas, SIA offers a morning flight from Singapore to Darwin, and an afternoon timing in the return direction.

The QantasLink Embraer E190

The Embraer E190 has a maximum range of 4,500km, so surprisingly this 3,300km journey is not quite pushing the aircraft’s limit.

The QantasLink E190 jets operating on the Singapore – Darwin route are configured with 94 seats in total, comprising;

• 10 Business Class (1-2 config)
• 84 Economy Class (2-2 config)

Here’s how the seat map looks, from the excellent aeroLOPA site.

Qantas also offers its own seat map for this aircraft type here.

Business Class seats offer the most space and comfort, but certainly aren’t flat-bed options like you get on all other Qantas flights operating to and from Singapore, or on SIA’s Darwin services.

Instead, these are wide recliner seats, more akin to a domestic Business Class or First Class offering.

Solo travellers in Business Class will want to pick one of the four standalone ‘A’ seats, which are both window and aisle options, while couples will likely opt for the right-side pairs ‘C’ and ‘D’.

In Economy Class, Row 5 and Row 11 offer additional legroom, while the 2-2 configuration gives all passengers either a window or aisle seat.

Qantas will launch a new non-stop link from Singapore to Darwin from early December 2024, but unlike the last time it flew this service back in 2006 it will be a small 94-seat regional jet plying the route five times per week.

Flights are due to increase to daily from March 2025, and will represent Changi Airport’s smallest passenger jet service by seating capacity.

Flights seem to be primarily designed for connecting passengers, especially to and from London, with timings supporting transits through Changi to and from QF1/2 Airbus A380 services, quite the contrast having stepped off a regional jet.

2024 is certainly looking like the year of the regional jet at Changi, with Scoot also due to launch 112-seat E190-E2 flights to and from the airport in the first half of this year.

(Cover Photo: James Ware)