Singapore Airlines will add to the renewed wave of international air capacity to Australia next year, with the carrier working on plans to boost its capacity to Australia and New Zealand 7 per cent after having slightly lowered its seat count during 2015. 
Goldman Sachs said scheduling data suggested international carriers would boost their capacity 6.5 per cent between   January and   June 2016, up from just 1 per cent in the second half of 2015. A strengthened Qantas International is forecast to raise its international capacity 6 per cent in both halves through new flights to destinations such as San Francisco and Hong Kong.
Singapore Airlines regional vice-president South West Pacific Tiow Kor Tan said since the start of his carrier's financial year in   April, it had filled 86 per cent of its seats to the region, up 5 percentage points from the previous year, despite the weaker Australian and New Zealand dollars.
"The percentage of the load factor that has increased, the majority of it has come from inbound," he said. "Outbound there is also an increase but it is a small increase."
Singapore Airlines did not add flights during most of the year and its seat count fell slightly as a result of the introduction of premium economy. But it has added extra services to Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide during the peak summer period.
Mr Tan said the bulk of more permanent capacity additions next year to the region would be to Australia rather than New Zealand.
He said Singapore Airlines was likely to make a fifth, daily Sydney-Singapore flight permanent and to either add a fifth daily flight to Melbourne or use larger planes, such as the A380, on the Melbourne-Singapore route.
The carrier will also consider capacity increases to Brisbane, where it will also focus on putting in place aircraft that have a business-class product with fully flat beds rather than the angled lie-flat product on the current A330s. A new Singapore Airlines lounge is scheduled to open at Brisbane Airport in the first quarter. "We have invested a lot in Australia," Mr Tan said. "Capacity-wise I think the whole group [including SilkAir and Scoot] is the second biggest into Australia after Qantas."
Other carriers, including Emirates, Etihad, ANA, Air Canada, American Airlines and Xiamen Air are also planning to increase capacity to and from Australia next year.
Goldman Sachs analyst Will Charlton said he believed the key drivers of a recovery in capacity growth included higher load factors, vastly improved airline profitability underpinned by the lower fuel price, the lower Australian dollar stimulating inbound tourism and increasing Chinese tourism.