Singapore Airlines has decided which of its three Singapore-London flights will switch over to the Airbus A380 first.
SIA general manager UK and Ireland Marvin Tan says the A380 will initially be used on SQ322 and SQ317. SQ322 is a late night departure out of Singapore, arriving Heathrow early the next morning while SQ317 is a late morning departure from Heathrow, arriving Singapore early the next morning.
SIA has not yet set a launch date for A380 services between Singapore and London because this hinges on the delivery of its second and third aircraft, which Tan says are expected to be delivered at or about the same time. SIA needs two aircraft in order to support a daily Singapore-London rotation.
After taking its first A380 last month, SIA said it planned to begin A380 flights to London in the first quarter of 2008 but did not announce which flight would be the first to upgrade from the Boeing 747-400.
“By the end of March we should see the A380 at Heathrow,” Tan says, adding larger aircraft are badly needed on the Singapore-London route because SIA’s three daily flights have an average annual load factor of about 85%.
SIA plans to eventually upgrade all three of its London flights to the A380 but this will take at least one year. It will deploy A380s on other routes, including Singapore-Tokyo and Singapore-Hong Kong-San Francisco, before the second London flight is upgraded.
SIA’s lone A380 is now operating between Sydney and Singapore on SQ220 and SQ221. SQ221 departs Singapore in the evening, arriving in Sydney early the next morning. After a quick turnaround SQ220 departs Sydney the same morning and arrives back in Singapore at lunchtime.
Tan says SIA is unable to initially offer all-A380 connections between London and Sydney due to aircraft rotation limitations. In order to take an A380 for the entire Kangaroo route passengers will have to endure a layover in Singapore of over 12 hours on the way to Sydney and a layover of almost 10 on the way to London. Connections of just a couple of hours are available on mixed A380-747 itineraries.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
