Company Watch - Singapore Airlines

AirGuide Business, March 10, 2008

Mar 10, 2008

Singapore Airlines will open a new front in the increasingly heated competition for premium travelers, announcing yesterday that it will reconfigure its five Airbus A340-500s with 100 lie-flat business class seats for use on transpacific routes to the US. Since the routes were launched several years ago, Singapore Air has operated the A340-500s in a business class/premium economy configuration seating 181. Owing to range shortfalls, it never was able to incorporate a first class cabin into the aircraft. The all-business-class configuration will feature a 1-2-1 arangement. Mar 4, 2008

Singapore Airlines will stake its Pacific claim starting in May, when it begins retrofitting its first aircraft for service between Singapore and Newark. Daily service with the all-business-class configuration will start by the end of June as aircraft are phased in, with flights to Los Angeles set to commence in late September. To account for the removal of aircraft from the fleet during the reconfiguration, its SIN-LAX flight will not operate on Tuesdays from mid-May to late June. "The new business class is being very well received by our customers on long-range flights. The new product is the perfect fit for the ultra-long-haul services between Singapore and the US," Singapore Air Executive VP-Marketing and Regions Huang Cheng Eng said. Economy passengers will continue to have access to a daily 747-400 flight between SIN and New York JFK, a daily 747-400 flight to LAX via Tokyo Narita and a four-times-weekly 777-200ER service to LAX via Taipei. Mar 4, 2008 Singapore Airlines took delivery of the third production A380 (MSN006) Saturday at the Toulouse factory in France. The Rolls-Royce Trent 900-powered, 471-seat big fat jet is expected to arrive in Singapore on Wednesday, March 12 and its addition to the fleet would allow it to begin A380 flights to London Heathrow starting Tuesday March 18, the airline said in a statement. Singapore Airlines, the first and currently the only airline to fly the A380, operates daily scheduled flights of the aircraft between Singapore and Sydney. The airline has firm orders for a further 16 A380s and options on six more, the statement said. Mar 8, 2008

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