SilkAir goes daily on Cairns-Singapore flights

Singapore Airlines’ regional subsidiary SilkAir will bump its Cairns-Singapore flights to a daily service from 2019, up from five weekly flights at present.

From June 2 2019, that means the addition of return flights on Tuesdays and Sundays, and as with the airline’s current Far North Queensland departures, these will be flown by Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, offering 12 reclining business class seats.

AusBT review: SilkAir Boeing 737 MAX 8 business class

Here’s how SilkAir’s Cairns flight schedule will shape up from June 2019:

As an alliance partner of Virgin Australia, Velocity Frequent Flyer members can earn and redeem Velocity points on SilkAir flights, and earn status credits.

Velocity Gold members also receive an additional 15kg of checked baggage on SilkAir flights – 20kg for Velocity Platinum members – and access to priority check-in and boarding, although those priority perks are already provided for when travelling in business class.

In Cairns, a SilkAir business class ticket provides access to the airport’s Reef Lounge on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays prior to MI812’s 10:45am departure (as does a Priority Pass card), although on the other days of the week, the later MI814 flight leaves well after the Reef Lounge closes.

Up in Singapore before your return or onward flight, SilkAir business class passengers are generally directed to the SATS Premier Lounge, which may be closer to the flight’s departure gate, although Singapore Airlines’ SilverKris business class lounge is also available as time permits.

The news comes as rival Qantas is ramping up its own flights from Cairns, with international-grade Airbus A330s appearing on selected services from Sydney and Melbourne, extra Cairns flights being launched from Brisbane, and the resumption of international QantasLink flights from Cairns to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.

Read: Qantas boosts Cairns, Townsville, Sunshine Coast, PNG flights

Chris Chamberlin

Chris Chamberlin is the Associate Editor of Executive Traveller, and lives by the motto that a journey of a thousand miles begins not just with a single step, but also a strong latte, a theatre ticket, and later in the day, a good gin and tonic.