Inconsistency over how airlines define long- and short-haul routes means flyers should check before they travel to ensure the best seat. Alex McWhirter reports
Business class is a black and white experience for European travellers. Fly six or seven hours or more – covering destinations in the US or the Gulf – and you can expect a reputable airline to offer its best product, meaning seating with more than enough space plus a steep degree of recline. Conversely, when taking shorter routes within the region, it’s best to resign yourself to less spacious seating.
Outside Europe, the parameters are not so clearly defined. Fly within or from the Gulf and, surprisingly, you will encounter the same luxurious fully flat-bed accommodation irrespective of whether you hop from Doha to Dubai in an hour or spend more than 14 hours crossing continents and oceans between Doha and Sao Paulo.
Likewise, business class passengers taking the three-hour 40-minute flight from Singapore to Hong Kong can sample a far better product than they might when tackling the seven and a half hour stage to Sydney or Melbourne. Being aware of facts such as these is essential for those who expect the highest standards.
It was the anomalous situation with Singapore Airlines (SIA) that prompted dozens of postings on our forum pages (businesstraveller.com/discussion). Readers told us of the confusion they faced when booking regional flights out of Singapore. SIA’s fleet is configured with four different types of business class seating, or as many as five if its regional Silk Air subsidiary is considered.
In particular, European passengers heading Down Under told us they felt let down. After a 12-hour flight from London, Frankfurt, Milan, Munich, Paris or Zurich in their own little world (thanks to SIA’s outstanding 1-2-1 fully-flat cabin layout), these lucrative passengers felt “downgraded” when they discovered their eight-hour onward service to Australia was rostered for an aircraft with denser six (2-2-2) or seven (2-3-2) across “recliner” seating intended for shorter routes.
This is despite the fact that all of SIA’s Australian routes out of Singapore, Perth excepted, equate to a transatlantic sector in terms of distance. Nicholas Ionides, SIA’s vice-president of public affairs, says: “We classify flights to Australia and North Asia as medium-haul. The classification is based on where the destination is located and does not take into account factors such as yield [revenue per seat] and competition. The business class product on our long-haul aircraft [the A380, B777-300ER and A340-500] is designed for the comfort of long-haul travel.”
But that classification is not strictly enforced. Check SIA’s schedules and you will see the cream of its fleet popping up to serve key cities in the region such as Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong, in addition to Sydney and Melbourne. What is confusing is that these very same A380s and B777-300ERs are operated on these routes alongside SIA’s regional fleet. So the canny traveller seeking the best product will do his or her homework and opt for a flight operated by an A380 or B777-300ER.
But why are SIA’s best planes being used on routes for which they were not originally intended? Reader Arthur Lim, a regular business class passenger in the region, says: “I believe SIA’s policy of aircraft utilisation is all down to image, prestige and location. If a carrier flies to a capital city or main business destination it will naturally want to show off its best products. As long as these major cities continue to bring in the most revenue, SIA will prioritise them in terms of new products and passenger comfort.”
Readers flying within or from the Gulf will encounter another anomalous situation. Here it would seem the maxim “An aircraft sitting on the ground is an aircraft that’s not making money” applies. Where else in the world do you find large, high-performance B777s designed for non-stop flights of more than 14,500km being routinely rostered for hops of anything between one and three hours? Check out the 375km route linking Doha with Dubai, or the 2,140km stage between Dubai and Beirut, for example.
There is a reason for this seemingly strange utilisation in the case of Emirates – it is simply because the Dubai carrier possesses no small narrow-bodied planes. A spokesperson says: “Operating wide-bodied aircraft on relatively short routes within the Middle East affords Emirates a number of advantages. These include the ability to offer passengers the luxury of a long-haul aircraft’s in-flight product on a short flight, the economies of scale from operating fewer aircraft types and not investing in a narrow-bodied fleet. It also means we have the capacity to carry greater amounts of cargo.”
Equally, one might be baffled by Qatar Airways’ decision to operate narrow-bodied A319s between Doha, Copenhagen and Berlin when its other European cities are served by the carrier’s wide-bodied fleet complete with proper long-haul comfort. The airline says: “The A319 is deployed on a select number of routes with a flying time of around six hours. We believe in developing potential routes with smaller aircraft rather than dumping capacity [by using larger planes]. When we feel it is right to upgrade the route to a larger plane, as happened with Stockholm in the past, we will do so.”
Some European airlines also confuse passengers when they take five-hour flights to the near Middle East. What some carriers consider long-haul, others might treat as short-haul. When British Airways was state-owned it was split into two divisions – BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) for long-haul and BEA (British European Airways) for short-haul. Being in Africa led to Cairo being classified as long-haul so it was served by BOAC with a long-distance product. By contrast, Tel Aviv, for political reasons, was considered part of Europe so it was covered by BEA using the short-haul product.
Today, BA treats both destinations equally by offering passengers long-haul planes with award-winning Club World seating. But some European carriers continue the distinction. Book KLM from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv and you will encounter a B737 with Europe Select seating which, for all intents and purposes, is little more than regular economy with a 3.5-inch recline (KLM has no proper European business class seating), even though the route length is more than 3,290km. But book KLM to Cairo and you will find yourself on board a B777 with angled lie-flat long-haul seating, even though the Egyptian and Israeli capitals are equidistant from Amsterdam.
Air France is another example. Book Paris to Tel Aviv and you will experience Air France’s A320 with European business class. Book to Cairo and you will find long-haul seating on an A330. Lebanon, “a piece of France in the Middle East”, is favoured by the carrier. Alone of every other European airline, Air France caters to the demands of wealthy Lebanese customers by wheeling out a four-class B777-300ER (a plane more at home on the 12-hour Paris-Tokyo route) even though Beirut is only four hours and 25 minutes from Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG). In contrast, the neighbouring Levantine cities of Amman in Jordan and Damascus in Syria must make do with the A320.
Unfortunately, the B777 is rostered to depart CDG for Beirut at 0900 (the carrier’s afternoon service is operated by a less glamorous A330) so no immediate connection is possible out of the UK. Were it not for this fact, Air France would be the natural choice for UK passengers seeking a stylish way of reaching Lebanon. So check plane types carefully to ensure you receive the best business class experience.
