A350 Deliveries and Routes

[SQ025]

Honestly speaking, I think SQ in the long term should ditch USA via Japan and Korea and let other Star partners to do their job. Competing with another Star carriers make no help for Singapore Airlines to boast loading and yield.

At least SQ11/12 seems to have quite healthy loads, not sure about the yield though. To me it would make more sense to reduce capacity on flights terminating in ICN, there seems to be quite some overcapacity on that route.

[Jumbojet Lover]

Honestly speaking, I think SQ in the long term should ditch USA via Japan and Korea and let other Star partners to do their job. Competing with another Star carriers make no help for Singapore Airlines to boast loading and yield.

For SQ, it's important to be able to offer their own product for a consistent experience if there is sufficient demand. SQ has a strong brand and reputation, coupled with loyal fliers, corporate contracts, premium home market etc, which has helped sustain their current offerings. It's really not all about 5th freedom traffic (unlike a SYD-LAX route which would have seen less SIN-originating passengers had the rights been granted).

Furthermore, the passengers SQ does not fly with its own metal will not necessarily take an SQ-coded NH/OZ flight. Corporate clients may switch to another alliance completely, such as CX with its expanding US footprint and multiple daily frequencies to LAX, SFO, JFK etc.

[SQ228]

Honestly speaking, I think SQ in the long term should ditch USA via Japan and Korea and let other Star partners to do their job. Competing with another Star carriers make no help for Singapore Airlines to boast loading and yield.

I can certainly see the rationality and logic in that, but then we insert the other element- people's free will.

As well as operating SQ26, SQ codeshares LH779 as SQ2008. Both flights leave SIN at 23:55 bound for FRA. SQ26 fills faster as it continues through to JFK, has less Y capacity and also SQ is more popular, especially with Germans.

I will happily step on board SQ26 any day. I will not travel on SQ2008.

[leops1984]

SQ26 fills faster as it continues through to JFK, has less Y capacity and also SQ is more popular, especially with Germans.

That's a bit of a surprise... one would imagine LH doing well with Germans. Bad image due to their labor problems?

[demue]

I would say service perception. SQ is regarded quite well in Germany as a "premium" option for travel to SE Asia (or on to OZ/NZ). LH is well LH . You start your Asian vacation off the right way when using a good Asian carrier (get's you into the mood - haha). People's perception of LH is usually - good pilots, good planes (in the sense of safe, well maintained) paired with standardized (cookie-cutter) service. Not great, not really bad.

I'm flying my mom over from Germany to SIN soon and when I booked her (award) ticket a few months ago her (and my) preference was - SQ, LX then LH. We ended up with LH for the long-hauls as that was what I could get Biz award space for, but not by choice.

Now, she will surely not suffer in LH C and apparently of late they are even trying a more SQ style meal service in Biz serving main courses individually and not from a trolley / cart, but in the end it is still LH. YMMV

[SQ228]

That's a bit of a surprise... one would imagine LH doing well with Germans. Bad image due to their labor problems?

The second I stepped onto my first ever long-haul LH A380 flight (LH779 to be precise) I heard a German man loudly complaining about how bad the cabin interior had been fitted out and how much amazingly better SQ had fitted out theirs. Everyone around him was whole-heartedly agreeing like it was a matter of national shame!

While I wasn't impressed with the LH A380, it didn't really offend me- it was satisfactory. It was their decrepit, malfunctioning A340-300 on the way back that made me vow never again for long-haul. After several atrocious short-haul experiences since, I see them as nothing more than an expensive LCC. They are miles away from SQ in every respect in my opinion and more than once as a KFEG I've been treated almost like a criminal when accessing their lounges, even with an SQ boarding pass that says I'm invited to the Senator Lounge.

[kevinlie350]

How is SQ's first A350 doing in the hangar anyway?

[SQKevin]

How is SQ's first A350 doing in the hangar anyway?

She currently in Station 20 undergoing cabin furnishing. This basically entails having the all seats & related cabin furnishings being installed.

[Metropolitan Airlines]

She currently in Station 20 undergoing cabin furnishing. This basically entails having the all seats & related cabin furnishings being installed.

I wonder why they don't fit the cabin in Singapore like 9V-SNB does?

[leops1984]

I wonder why they don't fit the cabin in Singapore like 9V-SNB does?

It probably costs more money for the airline that way, even for airlines that have a lot of in-house maintenance capabilities.

The only other time I've heard it happen was when there was a change of seat configuration by the airline relatively close to delivery time. Some of the later LH 747-8s were delivered with only some of their cabins fitted - while First and Business were in place, Premium Economy and Premium Economy were done by Lufthansa Technik after delivery. (One reason was that apparently Lufthansa had a surplus of Y seats for the 747-8 after the addition of PEY. which they put in the later planes.)

[SQKevin]

Photos of Msn 26 being painted. From Singapore Airlines Facebook Page.

[SQ36]

My speculation is that except LHR, FRA, CDG and ZRH, all B777-200ER and B777-300ERs to Europe will be replaced by A350-900 aircraft.

We should also see increase in CPH to daily with more A350-900 arrives and hopefully we will see some Limited Stops routes (such as MXP-BCN, MAN-MUC) will be split to Express routes (non-stop).

SQ has also indicated that they are interested to use A350 to open up some new routes. It might be a little early, but anyone have any idea of what they will launch?

My guess is:

Boston (via Europe) - Boston is an emerging destination with more and more European carriers (such as DY) going there, but has not been served by a lot of FSC yet. I suppose SQ can try doing AMS - BOS or CPH - BOS to beat DY and use the alliance with SK to feed European customers.

Boston is also the focus city of JetBlue, SQ's partner. As we know SQ dislikes UA, launching BOS will allow SQ to expand its partnership with B6 in the East Coast.

Vienna - Being in the Centre of Europe, and from the recent refugee crisis we can see Vienna is being the gateway between East and West Europe. SQ's partner OS has an extensive network from Vienna to Eastern Europe, Poland, Czech and the South Eastern Europe.

Vienna also has a very extensive rail network to neighbouring countries, especially to its north and east and south east. Railjet will soon establish a new station at Vienna Airport, this will help SQ to capture more O&D customers from rail to Singapore and through Singapore to Phuket, Bali, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia.

Seattle (via Hong Kong) - Seattle has a high Chinese customer base which will help traffic between HKG and SEA provided SQ get into alliance with HX to feed Chinese customers. This can be done by converting existing TZ slot at HKG to be operated by SQ. This will also help to cover the morning service gap between HKG - SIN.

Honolulu (Direct) - With the distance being 6711 miles and long ETOPS feature of A350-900, this might make HNL feasible should SQ gets into alliance with HA. Passengers will get immigration and customs clearance at HNL from a direct flight, then change for a domestic flight to other US destinations.

This can reduce SQ's risk to compete against other North Asian carriers for trans-pacific route.

Grest ideas. My hope too is that after years of pruning long-haul routes, SIA really needs to build up its network again to effectively compete for the Singapore market, let alone the Kangaroo route or the India-US market. We've lost places like Chicago, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Madrid and Brussels over the years.

My suggestions:

A359ULH - besides NYC and LAX, it'd be great to have flights to ORD again. But my head says SIA will likely deploy to SFO and keep the SIN-HKG-SFO routing which seems to be doing pretty well.

What about SIN-ICN-SFO? SIA needs a Canadian presence, and initially I was thinking SIN-ICN-YYZ because currently only Korean Airlines operates on this route. But Air Canada just announced ICN-YYZ so that's unlikely to happen. Other options e. g SEA, ORD would involve competing with Asiana with which SIA codeshares. Interestingly this doesn't include YVR so maybe SIN-ICN-YVR could return?

A359 - yes SIA should decouple MUC and MAN. For MAN, it would be great to continue to ORD or BOS. There's only American flying the former and no competitors for the latter; ORD may have a slightly larger premium market but BOS offers JetBlue connections.

Copenhagen could become daily. Does anyone know if Singapore carriers have fifth freedom rights from Denmark? If so, can extend to Stockholm Arlanda

Scoot - SIA should use Scoot to offer year round services to Athens and revive Cairo .

[leops1984]

Copenhagen could become daily. Does anyone know if Singapore carriers have fifth freedom rights from Denmark? If so, can extend to Stockholm Arlanda

This says yes; Denmark and Singapore have open skies.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120701...129-47156.html

Scoot - SIA should use Scoot to offer year round services to Athens and revive Cairo .

Given the current... political climate in Egypt, I would consider that doubtful.

[ek&sq]

Copenhagen could become daily. Does anyone know if Singapore carriers have fifth freedom rights from Denmark? If so, can extend to Stockholm Arlanda

One of the objectives of the partnership with SK was to launch a new SQ-operated SIN-ARN service, in addition to increasing SIN-CPH frequencies. The intention to serve ARN was announced in January 2012 but never materialized. I suspect we will see ARN once CPH can sustain a daily service and SQ has received enough A350's for network growth.

(https://beta.singaporeair.com/jsp/cm...s/ne120112.jsp)

[Jumbojet Lover]

I suspect we will see ARN once CPH can sustain a daily service and SQ has received enough A350's for network growth.

On the contrary, wouldn't a new SIN-ARN link cannibalize SIN-CPH? With Stockholm as an additional connection point, it should be harder to fill Copenhagen flights as some passengers would now fly to Stockholm instead.

OTOH, SIA could maintain CPH at the current frequency and operate to ARN on the other days of the week to offer at least a daily connection from either CPH or ARN.