Five years after moving out the transit point of its flagship Sydney-London route to Dubai, Qantas is now moving the layover stop back to Singapore from next year.

Along with the shift of the stopover point, Qantas will also increase services to Melbourne to twice daily, including a daily A380 service.

Qantas and Singapore shares a historic link, given that the Australian carrier operated its first international service to Singapore way back in 1935, becoming one of the oldest airlines to operate into Singapore.

In 2012, Qantas and Emirates became strategic partners, which saw Qantas moving its transit point for Australia-London flights to Dubai. This is so that Qantas customers travelling from Australia could benefit from connecting to Emirates’ network of over 30 destinations in Europe in Dubai. With the move to Dubai, Qantas also suspended flights to Frankfurt via Singapore in 2013, and focused on only point-to-point destinations between Australia and Asia.

In its announcement of the return, Qantas also announced the extension of the partnership with Emirates, which means that Qantas and Emirates customers can still enjoy the benefits of both airlines’ extensive networks in the Southwest Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa respectively.

Qantas’ return to Singapore is also a win for customers in Southeast Asia, who can now also choose from First and Premium Economy classes when travelling to Sydney, Melbourne or London on the A380.

In an announcement last month, Qantas also unveiled a refurbishment programme for its A380 fleet, which will be completed by 2019.