You may recall our article last month regarding SilkAir shifting a number of routes across to Scoot over the next couple of years in advance of its integration into Singapore Airlines.
Well part of the news was also that Scoot itself would lose a handful of routes to the parent airline, and the first of these is Bengaluru in May 2019. On this route SIA has chosen its newest aircraft and product, the A350 Regional, to replace a Scoot A320.
The schedule
All three Singapore Airlines group carriers, SIA, SilkAir and Scoot, are currently flying a schedule of 19 weekly flights on the Singapore – Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore) route.
Current schedule (until 16th May 2019)
| Flight | From / To | Aircraft | Days |
 MI424 |
SIN0700 – BLR0845 | 7M8 | 1··4567 |
 SQ502 |
SIN2005 – BLR2150 | 772 | Daily |
 TR572 |
SIN2220 – BLR0020* | 320 | Daily |
| TR573 |
BLR0120 – SIN0825 | 320 | Daily |
| MI423 |
BLR0945 – SIN1650 | 7M8 | 1··4567 |
| SQ503 |
BLR2305 – SIN0610* | 772 | Daily |
* Next day
New schedule (from 17th May 2019)
From 17th May 2019 (18th May 2019 from BLR), Singapore Airlines will deploy three Airbus A350 Regional aircraft per week to replace a daily Scoot A320 on the Bengaluru route, with almost identical timings. The new flight is displayed in yellow highlight below.
| Flight | From / To | Aircraft | Days |
| MI424 |
SIN0700 – BLR0845 | 7M8 | 1··4567 |
| SQ502 |
SIN2005 – BLR2150 | 772 | Daily |
| SQ504 |
SIN2220 – BLR0005* | 359 | ····567 |
| SQ505 |
BLR0120 – SIN0825 | 359 | 1····67 |
| MI423 |
BLR0945 – SIN1650 | 7M8 | 1··4567 |
| SQ503 |
BLR2305 – SIN0610* | 772 | Daily |
* Next day
It’s good and bad news for capacity
Replacing daily 180-seat A320s with three times weekly 303-seat A350 Regional flights represents an overall capacity cut on the route of 9% for the SIA group.
| SIA Group Capacity to/from Bengaluru | |||
| Class | Until 16 May ’19 | From 17 May ’19 | Change |
| Business | 326 | 446 | + 36.8% |
| Economy | 3,576 | 3,105 | – 13.2% |
| Total | 3,902 | 3,551 | – 9.0% |
Of course Business Class gets a big boost with 120 extra seats per week, a 37% increase, as Scoot doesn’t currently offer a Business Class option on the route. Importantly, these extra 120 seats per week are the latest flat-bed 2018 Regional Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration.
The Singapore – Bengaluru route is also served twice-daily by Jet Airways on the Boeing 737-800 offering 12 Business Class and 156 Economy Class seats on each flight.
SIA 2018 Regional Business Class
This new product is a far cry from the older 2-2-2 Regional Business Class ‘sloped bed’ seats, with enhanced privacy, direct aisle access for all passengers and fully-flat beds.
We reviewed it last year on a flight from Singapore to Bangkok.
Click here to read our full review of the Singapore Airlines 2018 Regional Business Class
We also flew the same product from Bangkok to Singapore to write a special focus on the ‘couple’ middle pairs, a nice option for those travelling with a colleague, friend or partner.
Redemption rates
Bengaluru falls into the India zone – Zone 6 on the Singapore Airlines / SilkAir award chart. These are the KrisFlyer miles rates you’ll pay for a redemption ticket on this route.
| KrisFlyer Redemption Singapore – Bengaluru | ||
| Saver | Advantage | |
| Economy | 18,500 | 37,000 |
| Business | 35,000 | 65,000 |
Our regular readers will know it’s the ‘Business Saver’ category we most often endorse, and here it’s not the best deal in the world at 35,000 miles one-way for a 4 hour 30 minute flight.
Roundtrip fares from Singapore to Bengaluru on these flights are running at S$2,215 in Business Class from mid-May, giving you about 3.2 cents per mile value with a KrisFlyer Business Saver redemption.
However assuming you’d be willing to fly Jet Airways Business Class on the same route, return fares are just S$1,062, slashing the value of your miles in half. The difference in product of course is stark, and the same goes for the other Singapore Airlines / SilkAir options on the route.
Whether you go for cash or miles, pick the SQ504/505 flights where you can to get the flat-bed 1-2-1 Business Class seats; the other SIA flight has the 2009 Regional Business product and both SilkAir and Jet Airways feature ‘recliners’ on their 737s flying to and from Bengaluru.
Award availability
We checked availability on these new A350 Regional flights with the new Business Class seats through the end of June 2019 in both directions, and as you can see there’s ample space currently on offer.
Singapore to Bengaluru