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Singapore Airlines is the launch customer for the Airbus A350-900ULR (where ULR stands for Ultra Long Range) and the airline announced back in May that it would use the aircraft to restart non-stop service between Singapore and Newark in October this year.
We’ve also known for a while that Singapore Airlines plans on using its new ultra long-range aircraft to fly non-stop between Singapore and Los Angeles but, up until now, there hasn’t been any news from the airline. That changed today with the latest announcement out of Singapore.
Singapore Airlines New Los Angeles Route
Singapore Airline will commence non-stop service between Singapore and Los Angeles in November this year with the route eventually being operated an impressive 10x/week.
The new non-stop route will launch on 2 November 2018 and will initially operate 3x/week before moving to 7x/week from 9 November 2018 when Singapore Airlines will see an additional A350-900ULR joins its fleet.
The route will finally operate 10x/week from 7 December 2018 on the following schedule:
SQ036 SIN 08:20 – 07:30 LAX (Wed, Fri & Sun)
SQ038 SIN 20:45 – 19:55 LAX (Daily)
SQ035 LAX 09:15 – 19:05+1 day SIN (Wed, Fri & Sun)
SQ037 LAX 22:25 – 08:15+2 days SIN (Daily)
That means that travel times on this route are set to be over 18 hours long.
Singapore Airlines Will Cancel Its Other Los Angeles Route
As things stand the Singapore Airlines flights to Los Angeles route via Seoul but the airline has confirmed that this service will end on 30 November 2018.
The Singapore – Seoul portion of this service will be maintained but the last flight continuing on to Los Angeles will be on 30 November 2018.
What this means is that, as the A350-900XWB only offers Premium Economy and Business Class cabins, the only Economy Class service Singapore Airlines will offer to LA will be via Tokyo Narita.
Singapore Airlines Adds Flights To San Francisco
Singapore Airlines has also confirmed that it will be increasing service between Singapore and San Francisco from 28 November 2018 as the airline adds 3 further weekly flights to the schedule using its Airbus A350-900ULR:
SQ032 SIN 09:20 – 07:50 SFO (Daily)
SQ034 SIN 15:20 – 13:50 SFO (Wed, Fri & Sun) **A350-900ULR**
SQ031 SFO 09:30 – 19:05+1day SIN (Daily)
SQ033 SFO 20:10 – 05:40+2 days SIN (Wed, Fri & Sun) **A350-900ULR**
That’s a nice amount of premium cabin capacity added to the San Francisco route and should make awards a little bit easier to find once the initial excitement of the new aircraft has worn off.
Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR
The Singapore Airlines A350-900ULR will be configured in a 2-class layout with 67 Business Class seats……
…..and 94 Premium Economy class seats….
…so there shouldn’t be any particularly bad seats on board.
The Business Class class seats are 28″ wide and convert into a lie-flat bed that’s 78″ (6ft 6″) long while the Premium Economy seats are 19″ wide and offer 38″ of seat pitch (leg room).
That’s not the most spacious Premium Economy seat you’ll find (Virgin Atlantic’s seats are 2″ wider) but it should still be enough to make the journey tolerable.
Bottom Line
Well, we finally know when Singapore Airlines will deploy its new aircraft to Los Angeles (I know quite a few people who have been waiting on this news) but I’m still not convinced I want to fly this route.
As I’ve said before, 18+ hours is a long time to sit in an aircraft (even in Business Class) and the more I consider booking one of these flights I find myself backing away and rethinking.
Clearly I’m going to have to try out the new aircraft so that I can review it for the blog but I’m not sure I’d choose to spend that much time cooped up in an aircraft for any other reason – a one-stop option that takes a little longer definitely appeals more to me.
