MONTHS of talks between Tourism Tasmania and Singapore Airlines appear to have come to nothing, with the carrier preferring Canberra over Hobart for direct flights into Asia.

Tasmanian officials met representatives of the airline in April, and the state’s trade mission earlier this month also stopped in Singapore.

The carrier started direct flights to Canberra last week, the first international connections to the national capital in 12 years.

It will fly a Singapore-Canberra-Wellington route four times a week.

Spokesman Karl Schubert told the Sunday Tasmanian Singapore Airlines had no plans to add to its Australian destinations.

“We continuously evaluate new route opportunities to provide additional travel options to our customers and support the further development of the Singapore hub,” Mr Schubert said.

“At this point, we do not have any plans to open new routes in the south-west Pacific region outside of the recently launched, Singapore-Canberra-Wellington service.”

The development is a blow to Tourism Tasmania, whose aviation and access director Hans van Pelt met the airline to spruik Hobart International Airport’s $40 million runway extension, which is due for completion in early 2018.

Singapore Airlines directly services Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne Perth and Sydney.

Subsidiary SilkAir flies to Cairns and Darwin.

Tourism Tasmania declined to comment on its discussions with international airlines.

Premier Will Hodgman is among other senior officials to have met several airlines during the past two years.

Discussions were at a “sensitive stage”, a state government spokesman said.

“International airlines have already indicated that Tasmania has significant untapped potential with a number of code-sharing agreements already in place,” he said.

The long-awaited $40 million runway extension was funded with the expectation an international carrier would be attracted to use it.

Chinese airlines and new players such as Air Asia X, Scoot and Dragonair have previously told the Sunday Tasmanian they had no plans to fly to Tasmania.

The state’s tourism industry has argued direct domestic flights to cities such as Perth would be more beneficial.

Airport corporate affairs manager Melinda Percival said negotiations on a direct international link were continuing.

“We have been in discussions with a number of international carriers and Tasmania is seen as an attractive destination,” Ms Percival said.

Monash Business School professor and co-author of airline industry study Up In The Air Greg Bamber said Hobart’s reputation as a tourist destination would keep it on the radar for international carriers.

“My hunch would be, rather than Singapore, it might be one of the new entrant airlines or one of the rapidly growing government-owned airlines from either China or the Middle East,” he said.

He said new Asian airlines were using European juggernaut Ryanair’s business model of targeting smaller, under-serviced airports in return for incentives such as reduced landing fees.

The extended runway will accommodate long-haul jets.