Singapore Airlines has now confirmed it will operate its non-stop transpacific flights in an all-business class layout starting this May.
As businesstraveller.com exclusively predicted (see online news January 23), SIA will reconfigure its five two-class Airbus A340-500s, which operate the carrier’s daily ultra-long-haul flights linking Singapore with Los Angeles and New York Newark.
SIA will remove its premium economy seating (there is no regular economy seating) from each A340-500 craft, which will reduce the seat count from 181 to 100. Seating in the all-business class cabin will be in a spacious four-across (1-2-1) layout. The seats themselves are the widest business class seats aloft and the fully flat beds are 76cm (30 inches) wide and are the same as those found on SIA’s A380 and B777-300ER fleet.
Huang Cheng Eng, SIA’s executive vice-president for marketing and regions, says the new product is the perfect fit for the ultra-long-haul flights to the US. Huang says: “The peak demand for non-stop flights is from our business class customers and this change will expand business class capacity from 64 to 100 seats per flight.”
It means that SIA will be offering the world’s most luxurious all-business class flights. Existing all-business class services between Europe and the US feature inferior seating and older or smaller planes.
The profitability of SIA’s non-stop flights has been affected by soaring oil prices. The carrier’s boss has admitted previously that the airline would never have started such services had it known the price of oil would have reached today’s heights, but because SIA believes it can fill every seat it means it will earn more revenue per flight.
The implementation will be phased in gradually. It will start on the New York route from mid-May (with all daily A340-500 flights converted by the end of June) followed by Los Angeles by late September.
These non-stop flights are popular with bankers and industrialists flying between South-East Asia and the US. They are also handy for European globetrotters who can easily continue onwards to New York without first having to return home.
For more information visit singaporeair.com.
Report by Alex McWhirter
