Where is Singapore Airlines flying its new A380s?

It’s been over a year and a half since the first Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 with the new Suites and Business Class cabins commenced commercial flights between Singapore and Sydney. By August 2018 all five new A380s had been delivered to the airline, earning their keep on a constant route list of five cities.

That changed in June 2019 when a refitted A380 rejoined the fleet, the first of 14 scheduled to undergo conversion with the latest seats, allowing more city pairs to be operated by aircraft with the latest seats.

Here’s where the six-strong fleet is currently flying.

Sydney

Sydney was the first route to get the new SIA A380 seats, just as it was when the airline’s first A380 entered commercial service back in October 2007.

The newest plane at the time, 9V-SKU, took over the regular SQ221/232 flight departing Singapore just before 9pm on 18th December 2017. It returned the following day, and since then that flight has been exclusively operated by the A380s with the latest cabin products, apart from one-off substitutions.

Northern summer schedule

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Timings on this route differ slightly during the northern winter schedule, due to seasonal wind changes and Sydney’s observance of daylight saving time.

Northern winter schedule

* Next day

When the first refitted A380 entered service on 20th June 2019, Singapore Airlines used it to boost Sydney flights to twice daily with the new products by introducing the newly fitted aircraft on daily SQ231/222 services.

However that was a temporary arrangement until early August 2019, with the ‘sixth’ aircraft now redeployed elsewhere.

London

Singapore Airlines’ cash cow route to London Heathrow was next for newly decked out A380 number two. Earning the airline over US$2 million (S$2.8 million) per day in revenue, this high priority destination is always on the SIA’s radar for new products and services.

16th February 2018 marked the first time the new A380 seats flew to London, as SQ322, returning the next day as SQ317.

While initially this flight pairing was only running three days a week with a new A380 until a third example arrived in the fleet, it went daily from 1st May 2018 and has remained so ever since.

Northern summer schedule

* Next day

Like the Sydney route this flight has a bit of seasonal wind adjustment and daylight saving time to contend with in the winter months, and operates on a slightly different schedule from November to March.

Northern winter schedule

* Next day

Singapore to London is the longest non-stop A380 flight on the Singapore Airlines network, at up to 14 hours 10 minutes during the winter season.

Hong Kong

Just a couple of days after the London flights began receiving the new A380s Hong Kong became the next city on the roster, with flights operating four days per week with the new Suites and Business Class seats.

Like London, the Hong Kong flight began to operate on a daily basis with the new products in early May 2018 following the delivery of the third new A380.

Northern summer schedule

A small timing adjustment on the Hong Kong – Singapore flight SQ861 applies in the northern winter season.

Northern winter schedule

Zurich

Another European route picked up the new A380 from 2nd August 2018, the largest city in Switzerland, Zurich.

Zurich also acts as Star Alliance partner Swiss International Air Lines’ hub. Unlike some previous route launches, the delivery of two new A380s in relatively close succession meant the Zurich flights became daily assignments from day one.

Northern summer schedule

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The usual factors lead to a schedule adjustment during the winter season on the route.

Northern winer schedule

* Next day

Shanghai

The final route to benefit from the first five new A380s delivered to Singapore Airlines was Shanghai, which like Zurich also started on a daily basis from 2nd August 2018.

Northern summer schedule

Like the other routes, this one gets a slightly different timing in the November to March period.

Northern winter schedule

Mumbai

There was a long gap with no new destinations for the newly configured A380s while we awaited the first refitted aircraft, 9V-SKS, to be returned to service.

That happened in June with the additional Sydney flights noted above, then for the month of August the Delhi route temporarily switched to the new planes.

The next permanent route though was Mumbai, which saw its regular daily A380 flight swapped to a newly configured A380 on 1st September 2019.

Northern summer schedule

* Next day

Timings in the winter months are as follows.

Northern winter schedule

* Next day

Route map

Here’s the current A380 Version 3 route map, correct at September 2019.

How’s the reliability?

Singapore Airlines has seen its A380 fleet a bit stretched recently, as regular maintenance and cabin refits have kept some planes in the hangar.

Here’s an analysis of how often the flights that are supposed to have the new cabin products actually did receive them on the day of operation, over the last year.