Singapore Airlines A350 Routes Announced

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This post is no longer being updated as we now have our DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO SINGAPORE AIRLINES’ A350 ROUTES (just follow the link) 

We’ve known for a while that Singapore – Amsterdam would be the first long-haul route on which Singapore Airlines would deploy their brand new Airbus A350-900 aircraft (I discussed this back in October), we’ve also known that Düsseldorf would be getting A350 service and we’ve known a bit about what the aircraft’s cabin layout is going to be like….but now we have some actual dates and a bit more information.

First off, Singapore Airlines has confirmed to Business Traveller Asia-Pacific (BTAP) that it expects to take delivery of 11 Airbus A350 aircraft in 2016 and expects to follow that up with another 7 come the summer of 2017. Overall the airline has a total of 67 Airbus A350-900s on order including 7 of the ultra long-range aircraft that I will come on to later.

Per BTAP, the Singapore Airlines’ CEO has stated that all 11 of the new Airbus A350s will be deployed on long-haul routes and quotes him as saying:

Singapore Airlines itself has not grown very much in terms of long-haul operations. With the addition of the A350-900 – with its fuel efficiency and its cabin that is ideal for mid-sized operations, we now have more options of opening up our network to more long-haul destinations.

Singapore Airlines A350 Routes & Dates Announced

Amsterdam

A Singapore Airlines press release has confirmed that the A350 service to Amsterdam will launch on 9 May 2016. The A350 will take over the daily Singapore – Amsterdam service from the Boeing 777-300ER that currently operates the route and will fly on the following schedule:

SQ324 SIN 23:55 – 07:15+1 day AMS
SQ323 AMS 11:15 – 05:55+ 1 day SIN

Before Amsterdam gets the A350, however, the aircraft will be deployed on select routes within Asia while Singapore Airlines gets its crews up to speed with their new aircraft.

a man in a suit talking to a woman

Kuala Lumpur

The first such route will be Singapore – Kuala Lumpur from 8 March 2016:

SQ118 SIN 18:40 – 19:40 KUL
SQ119 KUL 20:30 – 21:30 SIN

The Airbus A350 will operate this route until 8 May 2016.

The A350 will resume daily service on the Singapore – Kuala Lumpur route from 7 June and this will move to a 4x/week service (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays) from 28 June 2016.

Between 9 and 15 March 2016 the Singapore Airlines A350 will operate the following flights:

SQ106 SIN 08:30 – 09:30 KUL (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri)
SQ107 KUL 10:25 – 11:25 SIN (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri)

Jakarta

From 10 May 2016 Singapore Airlines will deploy an A350 on the Singapore – Jakarta route:

SQ956 SIN 09:25 – 10:10 CGK
SQ957 CGK 11:15 – 14:05 SIN

SQ962 SIN 16:25 – 17:10 CGK
SQ963 CGK 18:05 – 20:55 SIN

Johannesburg

UPDATE 26/5/16: Singapore Airlines has added Johannesburg as the second long haul destination for its new A350 aircraft (UPDATE: Cape Town now added to this route too) – more details here

Hong Kong

UPDATE 31/5/16: Singapore Airlines will fly the Airbus A350 on the Singapore – Hong Kong route from 7 June 2016 on a daily basis and this will shift to a 4x weekly service from 28 June (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays):

SQ890 SIN 07:35 – 11:20 HKG
SQ891 HKG 12:30 – 16:20 SIN

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Düsseldorf

And on 21 July 2016 Singapore Airline will add the A350 to its third long-haul route when the aircraft commences operations between Singapore and Düsseldorf 3x/week:

SQ338 SIN 23:30 – 06:30+ 1 day DUS (Mon, Thur, Sat)
SQ337 DUS 11:50 – 06:15 SIN +1 day (Sun, Tue, Fri)

San Francisco

UPDATE 15/6/16Singapore Airlines will be flying the A350 non-stop to San Francisco (follow the link for further details)

Melbourne

UPDATE 8/8/16: Singapore Airlines will fly the A350 between Singapore and Melbourne between 10 August and 22 October 2016. The airline flys this route 4x/day and the flights that will be taken over by the A350 as as follows:

SQ207 SIN 07:40 – 17:05 MEL (Daily)
SQ208 MEL 18:30 – 00:20+1 day SIN (Daily)

Moscow

UPDATE 14/11/16: Singapore Airlines has scheduled A350 service to Moscow Domodedovo from 15 December 2016.

 

The route operates 4x/week but only 2 of those flights will be operated by the new Singapore Airlines A350:

SQ362 SIN 00:15 – 06:20 DME  (Mon & Thu) **A350 Service**
SQ362 SIN 00:15 – 06:20 DME (Tue & Sat) 777-300 Service

SQ361 DME 14:45 – 06:15+1 day SIN (Mon & Thu) **A350 Service**
SQ361 DME 14:45 – 06:15+1 day SIN (Tue & Sat) 777-300 Service

Tokyo Haneda **NEW** (as of 14 November 2016)

From 13 December Singapore Airlines will operate its new A350 aircraft on the Singapore – Tokyo Haneda route 5x/week as flights SQ632 & SQ633.

The full Singapore – Tokyo Haneda Schedule looks like this:

SQ632 SIN 08:05 – 15:35 HND (Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun) **A350 Service**
SQ632 SIN 08:05 – 15:35 HND (Mon & Thu) 777-300ER Service
SQ634 SIN 14:05 – 21:40 HND (Daily) 777-300 Service
SQ636 SIN 22:45 – 06:20+1 day (Daily) 777-300ER Service

SQ631 HND 08:50 – 15:25 SIN (Daily) 777-300ER Service
SQ633 HND 16:40 – 23:20 SIN (Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun) **A350 Service**
SQ633 HND 16:40 – 23:20 SIN (Mon & Thu) 777-300ER Service
SQ635 HND 22:50 – 05:25+1 day SIN (Daily) 777-300 Service

The Singapore Airlines A350

Singapore Airlines has confirmed that the first A350s that it receives will be configured with 253 seats spread across three cabins – 42 Business Class seats, 24 Premium Economy seats and 187 Economy Class seats. No Singapore First Class suites on the A350.

Full details of the Singapore Airlines A350 cabin layout can be found via this link, but, in brief:

Business Class will be fitted out with the same Business Class seats as found on the Singapore Airlines 777 fleet:

Singapore Airlines A350 New Business Class

The Premium Economy cabin will have a 2-4-2 layout and feature Singapore Airlines’ new Premium Economy Seats:

Singapore Airlines A350 Premium Economy

And Economy Class will see the 187 seats arranged in a 3-3-3 formation which, hopefully, should give passengers a seat width of 18″ if Finnair’s A350 is anything to go by

The second set of A350s that the airline will receive (the ones arriving in 2017) will be configured as “medium-range” aircraft and will have noticeably less premium cabin seating. These are the aircraft expected to replace Singapore Airlines’ A330 aircraft most of which fly routes of up to 8 hours to destinations like Australia and New Zealand.

No actual cabin configurations have yet been released for these aircraft.

Singapore Airlines Ultra Long Range A350-900

As I mentioned earlier, Singapore Airlines has 7 ultra long-haul Airbus A350s on order that it expects to take delivery of in early 2018 (which is earlier then I’d expected).

The airline has confirmed to BTAP that it plans to use these aircraft to restart non-stop flights to “New York, Los Angeles and one more point in the US”. This will put it in direct competition with United Airlines who recently announced that they would commence non-stop operations between San Francisco and Singapore, using a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, from 1 June 2016.

The Singapore Airlines CEO is quoted by BTAP as saying:

We have yet to confirm the exact seating arrangement on the A350-ULR however, we’re looking at the possibility of either a two-or-three- class configuration.

 And he doesn’t seem too concerned about United Airlines either:

The B787 service from San Francisco to Singapore – obviously, we’ve evaluated it before but the aircraft, with its current capability is only able to do that route. It can’t do flights to New York or Los Angeles. It therefore has limited capabilities of being able to serve nonstop flights [to the US]

 We are not new to competition. We know that [nonstop flights from the US by our competitors] will come to Singapore in some capacity, and we’ll deal with it like we have always done.

I think he just called United’s 787 one-dimensional….. 🙂

Bottom Line

I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to the A350 having only flown in Finnair’s new A350 on a short-haul flight last year…..but that was enough to whet my appetite. I’ve got plans to try out Cathay Pacific’s A350 shortly after it begins its long-haul routes in October and I expect to be trying out Qatar Airway’s A350 at some point too.

I liked what I saw of the Finnair A350 (with the larger windows and the higher ceilings) and I’m looking forward to seeing if the difference in cabin pressure that you get on an A350 makes a significant difference on long-haul flights.

Like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the Airbus A350 is a game changer for the airline industry. The significantly increased efficiency of the aircraft makes previously uneconomical routes economical to fly and it’s interesting to watch what the airlines adopting the A350 are doing with them.

Featured Image: Singapore Airlines A350 courtesy of Airbus.

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