It speaks loudly about the failure of Qantas act competitively on overseas routes that Singapore Airlines has today moved to reassert its lead over Emirates as Australia’s largest foreign flag carrier in confirming its plans for a large expansion of its flights between Adelaide and its  Changi Airport hub for connections to the rest of the world.

In a statement, which trails its own leaks to the media by several days, it tabulates its Australian operations as follows.

Singapore Airlines is Australia’s largest foreign carrier and will operate 105 weekly services, as of 2 July, from the following cities:

Adelaide – ten flights weekly operated with Airbus A330 aircraft
Brisbane – three flights daily with Airbus A330 aircraft
Melbourne – three flights daily with Airbus A380/Boeing 777-300ER/Boeing 777-300 aircraft
Perth – three flights daily with Airbus A330/Boeing 777-200/Boeing 777-300 aircraft
Sydney – four flights daily with Airbus A380/Airbus A330/Boeing 777-300 aircraft
Darwin – four flights weekly with Airbus A319/Airbus A320 aircraft, operated by SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines

In 2012, Singapore Airlines celebrates 45 years of service to Australia and the fifth anniversary of the first A380 flight, as well as further capacity increases by growing from 95 weekly services to 112 by the end of the year.

This is not about Qantas. It is about Singapore Airport versus Dubai Airport, following the public musing by Emirates about nothing more than the possibility it might put a daily 777 into Adelaide operations.

It remains to be seen whether Singapore Airlines succeeds in intimidating Emirates into staying out of Adelaide. I wouldn’t bet on this proving to be the case.