What a surprise! Congratulations to Singapore Airlines launches a new nonstop Jakarta to Sydney services, as a tag-on from the Singapore-Jakarta-Sydney route.

Effective November 23rd, the new flight operates in a timetable as follows (source: airlineroute.net) :

SQ261 SIN2015 – 2100CGK2225 – 0930+1SYD 772 135 SQ262 SYD1100 – 1435CGK1535 – 1810SIN 772 246

This marks the massive expansion for Singapore Airlines in Australia, given that it has recently introduced the "Capital Connect" routing between Singapore-Canberra-Wellington, becoming the only international route that out of the Australian capital.

In my opinion, the presence of Singapore Airlines will be a challenge to the existing competition, which is Qantas and Garuda Indonesia. Singapore Airlines has a loyal customer base in the Indonesian archipelago, including those who were willing to fly to Australia via Singapore. Having nonstop services will make it even easier for these customers to fly SQ to Australia.

While Qantas may be benefited from the Australian-based corporate contracts, and the connection it offers to destinations in Australia and New Zealand, Garuda may be taking the bigger hit, as they share a relatively similar customer base with Singapore Airlines.

Purely speculative from my side, but in response, they may be forced to upgrade their product on the Jakarta to Sydney route with a B77W, or rearrange their Sydney services. What are your thoughts about this new route?