Singapore Airlines will launch premium economy in August with Sydney, Hong Kong and London Heathrow the first three destinations to experience the new product.
The move will be the first time that SIA has ever offered a premium economy cabin other than on its former ultra-long range US flights, now discontinued.
Initially, the plan is to provide premium economy seating only on the carrier's flagship A380 and B777-300ER aircraft.
Flight data sourced by airlineroute.net reveals the initial destinations - first Sydney, then Hong Kong and then LHR.
The data also shows that, as disclosed in our previous news piece, the space for premium economy is taken mainly from the economy class cabin.
Initial seating plans confirm that SIA's premium economy adopts a conventional layout. That means it will be disposed eight across (2-4-2) on both the A380 and B777-300ER.
The good news is that the normal economy class layout remains more or less unchanged at ten-across (3-4-3) on the A380 and nine-across (3-3-3) on the B777-300ER.
But economy class is cut by over 60 seats. For example, SIA's low-density A380 version, which currently accommodates 311 economy passengers, will see its economy seat count lowered to just 245 passengers.
On the B777-300ER, first class is halved from eight to four seats, while business is increased from 42 to 48 seats. But the economy class seat count is cut from 228 to 184.
The premium economy zone will consist of 36 seats on an A380 and 28 seats on a B777-300ER.
It means that SIA is keen to drive up "yield" or revenue per seat. By replacing many normal economy seats with pricier premium economy ones, the airline will be expecting to command higher prices.
But fares also stand to rise in economy class at times of high demand because there will be fewer economy seats on offer.
It will take some time before SIA's fleet of A380s and B777-300ERs is retrofitted with the new seating. And, because SIA is a hub airline, with passengers often taking two flights rather than a single one to reach a destination, there will be both tariff and product confusion in the early days.
After converting both A380s and B777-300ERs, the plan is also to retrofit other aircraft in the SIA fleet.
Although final details are subject to change, and the new seating will initially only be available on a select number of flights/routes, provisional launch dates to other destinations out of Singapore are:
- September — Beijing, Shanghai, Paris CDG, Frankfurt
- October — Delhi, Mumbai, Auckland, Munich, Manchester
- November — no routes scheduled at the time of writing
- December — Tokyo Narita, New York JFK, Zurich
- January 2016 — Dubai, Seoul, San Francisco
Alex McWhirter
