SIA to add fourth daily London-Singapore flight
Published: 07/06/2012 - Filed under: News »
SIA has this morning announced that it will expand its flagship London Heathrow to Singapore route from the autumn.
It means that the current three times a day service will be boosted to a four times a day service. Right now SIA plies the route with A380 superjumbos and the additional flight, which starts operating on September 9, will be rostered for a B777-300ER equipped with the latest premium class seating.
In a way the move comes as a surprise seeing as SIA last increased the frequency of its London-Singapore operation way back in 1998.
In a statement issued to Business Traveller SIA says, “Ever since then [1998] we have been wanting to increase our operation to a four times a day operation. The difficulty has been with obtaining the relevant slots at Heathrow.
"On the rare occasions when slots at Heathrow do become available, there are often buyers looking to acquire them. Only now has SIA managed to obtain slots, not only at the right price but also at times which offer onward connections both in London and Singapore.”
SIA’s extra flight will initially operate four times a week, rising to a daily service from October 21. Exact timings are not finalised but SIA says it will involve a late night departure out of Singapore with a return from Heathrow in the morning.
It’s good news for business travellers bound for Singapore because it means there will now be two late night departures from the City State for London.
The late night departure is badly needed. It will prove a boon for passengers taking SIA between Australasia and London. Right now passengers from the likes of Auckland, Christchurch, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and so on can only connect with the single late night departure out of Singapore. The latter is invariably heavily booked and so seats are not easy to obtain at busy times.
Says SIA’s executive VP commercial, Mak Swee Wah, “We have been looking to increase our London flights for many years and are pleased that we can do so now. Not only are London and Singapore attractive destinations in their own right, the additional flights will allow for more convenient connections beyond Singapore to other points within Asia and the South West Pacific.”
For more information visit singaporeair.com.
Report by Alex McWhirter
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COMMENTS »
Bucksnet - 07/06/2012 11:01
I wonder where they're getting the slots from? The arrival slot might be SAA's cancelled CPT service as that arrives early morning, but they need a morning departure slot from LHR as well.
StephenLondon - 07/06/2012 15:25
Flight stats is showing an 00:45 departure from SIN arriving LHR at 06:55, but with the return flight at 15:15 from LHR, Arriving back into SIN at 11:55 the following day. It really makes for good connections at all ends.
cityprofessional - 08/06/2012 06:58
"Right now passengers from the likes of Auckland, Christchurch, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and so on can only connect with the single late night departure out of Singapore"... What about the morning flight? Let's say you take one of the overnight flights out of Auckland, Brisbane or Melbourne, why wouldn't you could take the 9am day flight out of Singapore?
BusinessTraveller - 08/06/2012 15:03
Hello cityprofessional,
Well spotted. You make a good point and it's one that I missed. The fact is that I had to write the news piece in haste as we wanted to break the story to our readers as quickly as possible. To have checked every flight on every SIA route linking Australia and New Zealand to London would have taken up an hour of valuable time.
The fact is that SIA's traditional kangaroo route timings involve a teatime departure, followed by a good connection in Changi and an overnighter out of Singapore which gives an early morning arrival into the UK. Inflight service is therefore geared so that all passengers get an opportunity to sleep on this long overnight sector to London.
Taking a midnight departure from, say Melbourne or Brisbane, results in an early arrival at Singapore followed by a three hour wait for the 0905 to London. Would it be possible to get as much rest on a 13 hour daytime flight, I wonder ?
Alex McWhirter
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