Starting October 23 this year, Singapore Airlines (SIA) will have daily non-stop flights between Singapore to San Francisco, the carrier announced in a statement today. Both the outbound and return flights will have morning departure times, and SIA will serve the route using its new 253-seat A350-900 aircraft, which features business, premium economy and economy class cabins.
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SIA also said on Thursday that it will add a second daily flight between Singapore and Los Angeles on Oct 23. 787-9. The 8,446-mile (13,600-kilometer) route is the longest 787 flight, at nearly 16 hours, and the longest flight by a USA -based airline, Chicago-based United Continental Holdings Inc. said at the time. The switch will give Los Angeles two Singapore Airlines flights per day, just as San Francisco has.
The airline had axed a near 19-hour trip to NY and direct flights to Los Angeles in 2013 due to high fuel prices and weak demand. The carrier plans to resume Los Angeles and New York-area services in 2018 when it takes delivery of seven Airbus A350-900ULRs, which are expected to have a range of more than 10,300 miles.
The two carriers are also seeking the flexibility to potentially expand the alliance to cover other United flights, SIA flights beyond Singapore as well as flights between the USA and Singapore. They don’t use code-sharing on United’s San Francisco-Singapore flight, which would have enabled Singapore Air to sell seats on that service.
Traversing around 13,600 kilometres, SIA’s non-stop service to San Francisco will be the longest flight in its network until 2018, when the flag carrier relaunches direct flights to NY and Los Angeles.
Next generation, twin-engine aircraft such as the A350 and B787 have made direct services to the US West Coast more feasible as the wide-body planes are fuel efficient, while jet fuel prices have more than halved since 2013. A now available flight travels from LAX to Tokyo to Singapore.
Singapore Airlines has at the same time taken the hard decision to suspend services to Sao Paulo, Brazil as a result of the sustained weak performance of the route.
The last flight will be on Oct 20, but services between Singapore and Barcelona will continue.
Senior Vice President Marketing Planning, Ms Lee Wen Fen, said: “Our customers have been asking us to offer more U.S. services and we are pleased to be able to do so”. Singapore said that in addition to the new non-stops, it will continue to offer daily one-stop service between SFO and Singapore via Hong Kong, using a 777-300ER.
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Highlighting that the U.S. is a key long-haul market that Changi Airport Group has been cultivating, CAG senior vice-president (market development) Lim Ching Kiat said: “We will continue to work with our airline partners to leverage the new opportunities in this market”.
