In October last year, Oneworld carrier Qantas announced plans to become the first airline to operate the Airbus A220 on flights to and from Singapore Changi Airport, with a five times weekly service connecting the Lion City to Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory from late March 2025.

That was already a change from the original plan to launch the route with Embraer E190 jets in late 2024 – and now there’s another change to report.

Initially, the route will be served four times weekly by larger 174-seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft, delaying the 137-seat Airbus A220’s five times weekly debut until late October 2025.

The Singapore – Darwin route is currently exclusive to Singapore Airlines, with the carrier operating daily Boeing 737-8 MAX flights on the route.

The schedule

Qantas hasn’t served the Singapore – Darwin route since 2006, but the group’s low-cost subsidiary Jetstar was operating flights between the two cities from 2008 until 2022, except for a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, since then the Singapore – Darwin route has been exclusive to Singapore Airlines, with the carrier currently operating daily Boeing 737-8 MAX flights on the route.

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

Qantas
Singapore ⇄ Darwin
(30th March 2025 – 25th October 2025)

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	QF114 737-800
SIN 19:20		DRW 01:40*
Duration: 04:50
	QF113 737-800
DRW 14:55		SIN 18:15
Duration: 04:50

* Next day

As you can see, this service will initially use Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

From the start of the northern winter season in late October, which corresponds to summertime in Australia, the Airbus A220 replaces the Boeing 737-800, with corresponding addition of the originally-proposed fifth weekly service on Sundays, as shown below.

Flights will then be operated by QantasLink.

Qantas
Singapore ⇄ Darwin
(from 26th October 2025)

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	QF282 A220
SIN 22:25		DRW 04:55*
Duration: 04:50
	QF281 A220
DRW 16:05		SIN 19:25
Duration: 04:50

* Next day

This will mark the first passenger flights with the new aircraft type to and from Singapore, and the second regional jet regularly used at Changi Airport, with SIA’s low-cost subsidiary Scoot now flying a number of Embraer E190-E2 jets on a variety of routes.

Despite some minor tweaks, Qantas flight timings to and from Darwin are still designed primarily for connecting passengers, especially to and from London, supporting transits through Changi to and from QF1/2 Airbus A380 services – quite the contrast having stepped off one of the airline’s smallest jets!

The QantasLink Airbus A220

Despite the delay in the launch of this service, Qantas passengers will now benefit from the newer and larger Airbus A220-300 aircraft, operated for QantasLink by National Jet Systems.

With five A220s in the fleet and 24 more on order, the aircraft is set to become a regular sight at Australian airports, but this will be the first international route for the jets in Qantas colours.

The Airbus A220-300 has an impressive maximum range of 6,300km, enough to fly from Darwin to Sapporo, Japan in about 7.5 hours, so this 3,300km jaunt between Singapore and the Northern Territory is hardly testing the aircraft’s limits.

The QantasLink A220 jets that will (eventually) be operating on the Singapore – Darwin route are configured with 137 seats in total, comprising:

• 10 Business Class (2-2 config)
• 127 Economy Class (2-3 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 is in a 2-2 configuration with 37-inch seat pitch and 5-inch recline.

These seats also have a six-way adjustable headrest, calf rest and footrest, tablet holder, wireless charging pads, dual USB-A and USB-C charging ports, plus an extendable cocktail table in addition to the regular tray table.

They are definitely an improvement on the Embraer E190 Business Class seats originally destined to operate this route, though that one did have the benefit of a relatively unique ‘solo’ seat by the window on the left side, thanks to its 1-2 configuration.

Nonetheless both seats are more akin to a domestic Business / First Class product – there are no flat beds to look forward to here like there are on Singapore Airlines’ Boeing 737-8 MAX jets.

In Economy Class, couples will no doubt want to secure the A/C pairs by the left side, the forward six rows of which (4AC to 9AC) benefit from 34-inch seat pitch, four inches more than the rest of the aircraft.

The exception of course is Row 12, which has 37-inch pitch, since it is the emergency exit row.

All seats in Economy Class are 18 inches wide, which is slightly better than Singapore Airlines offers on its Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft (17.7 inches). Dual USB-A and USB-C charging ports are available, along with an integrated drop-down tablet holder.

Award rates

Award seats have already been loaded for Qantas Frequent Flyer members and those holding miles with partner programmes on many of these upcoming Singapore – Darwin flights, with the following rates applicable.

Qantas Award Rates

FFP	Singapore – Darwin
	Economy	Business
	13,000 +S$124	38,750 +S$209
	15,000 +S$124	33,000 +S$209
	18,000 +S$124	41,500 +S$209
	26,000 +S$124	52,000 +S$209
	30,000 +S$84	40,000 +S$84

The best award space is via Qantas Frequent Flyer, as you’d expect.

You may also be able to find availability on these flights via partner frequent flyer points – use the American Airlines search portal, since programmes like British Airways Avios and Asia Miles cannot display QantasLink award space like American Airlines can.

You can then call to book, for example if you wish to redeem Avios points.

For comparison, Singapore Airlines charges 21,500 KrisFlyer miles for a one-way saver award in Economy Class on this route, increasing to 40,500 KrisFlyer miles in Business Class.

Qantas originally planned to relaunch its Singapore – Darwin flights after an 18-year hiatus using Embraer E190 aircraft from its QantasLink subsidiary, starting in December 2024, but the plans then shifted to a late March 2025 launch, using the carrier’s newer Airbus A220 aircraft.

Now there’s another change on the cards – the route will actually kick off next month using Boeing 737-800 aircraft four days per week, only finally shifting to the Airbus A220 five days per week from late October this year.

That means Singapore will not see its first regular Airbus A220 passenger service for another eight months from now, but at least this route will get going again, finally providing some competition to Singapore Airlines, following Jetstar’s 2022 withdrawal.

(Cover Photo: Bidgee)