Singapore Airlines To Fly Airbus A350 To Amsterdam

Yesterday it was American Airlines and today it a Singapore Airlines news day 🙂

Singapore Airlines will be taking delivery of its first Airbus A350XWB aircraft in January next year and it will join Finnair, Qatar and Vietnam Airlines as one of the the first airlines to fly the aircraft.

Up until now we’ve known what plans the other three airlines had for the A350 but Singapore Airlines hadn’t revealed its hand. But now it looks like they’ve announced their first routes.

According to Australian Business Traveller (ABT), Singapore Airlines revealed its plans for the A350 during a media briefing at the Airbus HQ in Toulouse, France:

Initially Singapore Airlines will use the aircraft on short-hop routes to Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta as it gets its crews accustomed to the new aircraft but the first long-haul destination will be Amsterdam.

No dates for have yet been released for the first few flights but, using Finnair’s timetable as a guide, I’d expect the aircraft to be put on the Amsterdam route a month-or-so after the “crew familiarisation” flights have taken place.

Singapore Airlines’ A350XWB aircraft will be set out in a 3-class configuration meaning that there’s no place for their near-legenday first class offering. Nevertheless, the aircraft will offer the new Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy Class cabins that we’ve seen begin rolled out on their new Boeing 777 aircraft:

Singapore Airlines New Business Class

Singapore Airlines New Business Class

Singapore Airlines New Premium Economy Seats

Singapore Airlines New Premium Economy Seats

Singapore Airlines – Economy Cabin Seating

Singapore Airlines – Economy Cabin Entertainment System

The Business Class cabin is expected to feature a 1-2-1 seating configuration while the Premium Economy cabin will be in a 2-4-2 configuration. While there’s no official seat map for the Singapore Airlines A350, the economy cabin is expected to keep to the 3-3-3 configuration found in Singapore Airlines’ 777-300 aircraft – and that is a big positive considering how many airlines have already moved to (or are moving to) a 10-across seating configuration in their Economy Cabins.

Apart from Singapore Airlines’ planned route to Amsterdam, these are the other routes planned for the A350 (so far):

Finnair:

Helsinki – Shanghai (from 21 Nov 2015)

Helsinki – Bangkok (from 4 Dec 2015)

Helsinki – Beijing (from 4 Dec 2015)

Helsinki – Hong Kong (from 1 Feb 2016)

Helsinki – Singapore (from 5 May 2016)

Qatar Airways:

Doha – Frankfurt

Doha – Dubai (from 1 Nov 2015)

Doha – Munich (from 1 Nov 2015)

Doha – Philadelphia (from 1 Jan 2016)

Doha – New York (from 1 Apr 2016)

Doha – Boston (from 16 Mar 2016)

Vietnam Airlines

Hanoi – Paris CDG

Hanoi – Seoul

Ho Chi Minh City – Paris CDG (from 25 Oct 2015)

As it happens, I’m scheduled to try out Finnair’s A350XWB flight later this week on one of its short-haul routes (the one’s they’re flying to get their crews accustomed to the new aircraft) so that will be my first chance to see one of these planes up close. They too have kept to a 3-3-3 configuration in their economy cabin so it will be interesting to see just how comfortable it looks.

All images/renderings courtesy of Singapore Airlines