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

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ221	SIN2020 – SYD0555*	388	Daily
SQ232	SYD1100 – SIN1730	388	Daily

* Next day

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

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ221	SIN2040 – SYD0740*	388	Daily
SQ232	SYD1215 – SIN1735	388	Daily

* 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

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ322	SIN2330 – LHR0555*	388	Daily
SQ317	LHR1125 – SIN0730*	388	Daily

* 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

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ322	SIN2345 – LHR0555*	388	Daily
SQ317	LHR1055 – SIN0750*	388	Daily

* 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

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ856	SIN0955 – HKG1355	388	Daily
SQ861	HKG1540 – SIN1935	388	Daily

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

Northern winter schedule

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ856	SIN0955 – HKG1355	388	Daily
SQ861	HKG1545 – SIN1945	388	Daily

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

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ346	SIN0125 – ZRH0815	388	Daily
SQ345	ZRH1145 – SIN0555*	388	Daily

* Next day

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

Northern winer schedule

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ346	SIN0130 – ZRH0750	388	Daily
SQ345	ZRH1035 – SIN0600*	388	Daily

* 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

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ830	SIN0945 – PVG1505	388	Daily
SQ833	PVG1650 – SIN2220	388	Daily

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

Northern winter schedule

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ830	SIN0920 – PVG1435	388	Daily
SQ833	PVG1625 – SIN2215	388	Daily

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

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ424	SIN1900 – BOM2210	388	Daily
SQ423	BOM2340 – SIN0740*	388	Daily

* Next day

Timings in the winter months are as follows.

Northern winter schedule

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ424	SIN1855 – BOM2210	388	Daily
SQ423	BOM2335 – SIN0730*	388	Daily

* 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.

Route	Roundtrip flights operated			Reliability
	Old A380s	New A380s	Total
London SQ322/317	1	360	361	99.7%
Zurich SQ346/345	7	356	363	98.1%
Sydney SQ221/232	9	351	360	97.5%
Shanghai SQ830/833	44	319	363	87.9%
Hong Kong SQ856/861	66	296	362	81.8%
All Routes	127	1,682	1,809	93.0%

There is not sufficient data to analyse the reliability of the Mumbai route yet.

It’s no surprise that the shorter Hong Kong and Shanghai routes are the ‘fall guys’ when things go wrong. 66 of the last 362 flights to and from Hong Kong were operated by A380s with the older cabin products, a disappointing outcome if you were on board for one of those substitutions and were expecting the latest fit.

On the flip side the London flight SQ322/317 only had to make do with an older plane once over the last year, a 99.7% score for the new cabins. Zurich and Sydney are the other safe bets, as the airline clearly prioritises the longest routes.

Where else have they flown?

Some lucky passengers expecting to fly an older A380 Version 1 or 2 aircraft were in for a lucky surprise on occasional flights over the last year, which were substituted for the new A380 Version 3 for operational reasons. They included:

• London (6 times)
• Beijing (3 times)
• Delhi (twice)
• Mumbai (once)
• Sydney (once)

Future routes

The next A380 to be converted to the latest cabin products, 9V-SKT, is still in the Changi hangar undergoing refit. It will join the fleet later this year and support a brand new A380 Version 3 destination from 1st January 2020 – Tokyo Narita.

This will be a daily service, replacing an older A380 currently flying on the SQ638/637 flight pairing.

From 1st January 2020 (highlighted flights will operate with new cabin products)

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ638	SIN2355 – NRT0730*	388	Daily
SQ637	NRT1105 – SIN1745	388	Daily

* Next day

Flights switch to the summer timings from 29th March 2020.

Northern summer schedule

Flight	From / To	Aircraft	Days
SQ638	SIN2355 – NRT0800*	388	Daily
SQ637	NRT1110 – SIN1720	388	Daily

* Next day

KrisFlyer redemptions

If you’re looking to try out the new Suites or Business Class on these six routes, you’ll be wanting to secure a saver award redemption where possible. Here are the prevailing rates in those cabins by route, including for the upcoming Tokyo service.

KrisFlyer Redemption to/from Singapore
	Business	Suites
Hong Kong SQ856/861	30,500	40,500
Mumbai SQ424/423	39,000	53,000
Shanghai SQ830/833	39,000	53,000
Tokyo SQ638/637 (new products from 1 Jan 2020)	47,000	70,000
Sydney SQ221/232	62,000	85,000
London SQ322/317	92,000	125,000
Zurich SQ346/345	92,000	125,000

Bear in mind that new Suites remain very popular, and with only six seats compared to 12 on the older A380s you’ll normally have to either waitlist for a saver award or pay advantage rates.

Mumbai is an exception, with lots of immediately confirmable availability compared to the other routes.

The Singapore Airlines A380 fleet

The current Singapore Airlines A380 fleet is configured as follows.

Reg	Version	Config
9V-SKF	Version 1	12R 60J 36W 333Y
9V-SKG
9V-SKH
9V-SKI
9V-SKJ
9V-SKK
9V-SKL	Version 2	12R 86J 36W 245Y
9V-SKM
9V-SKN
9V-SKP
9V-SKQ
9V-SKR
9V-SKS	Version 3	6R 78J 44W 343Y
9V-SKT	Version 2 (in refit to V3)
9V-SKU	Version 3
9V-SKV
9V-SKW
9V-SKY
9V-SKZ

The seat maps will help you determine which aircraft type you’re flying on. In Suites Class a 1-2-1 configuration means the Version 1 or Version 2 aircraft, it’s a 1-1 configuration with just six Suites in total which represents the latest Version 3 fit.

In Business Class if the seat map goes up to row 27 it’s a Version 1 plane, up to row 96 means Version 2 and up to row 97 means the new Version 3.

Externally if the aircraft is parked in front of you at the gate, you can also tell the newer configuration compared to the older ones by observing the different window arrangement at the front of the aircraft.

The main deck has no missing windows on the newer Version 3 aircraft, but instead the missing windows are apparent on the upper deck.

Finally if you’re striving for 100% AvGeek, you can tell all three versions apart by counting the number of windows behind the last upper deck door, if you can see that far.

A single window here is a Version 1 aircraft, two windows is Version 2 and four windows is Version 3.

Reviews

We have two comprehensive reviews from our first-hand experiences on this new aircraft, one of the 2017 Suites and the other from the 2017 Business Class.

We weren’t totally enamoured by the new Suites product, which despite the ‘wow factor’ has many flaws, but we loved the latest Business Class and think it’s the best ever offered by the airline.

In both cases we also experienced the double bed arrangement, with adjoining Suites to Hong Kong and a bulkhead row in Business Class to Sydney.

As you’ll see from the reviews, the largest Suites are the forward two (1A and 1F), while the forward pair on each side (1A/2A and 1F/2F) can be combined into the double suite arrangement.

In Business Class there’s more foot space and bed length in the bulkhead seats at rows 11, 91 and 96, with the middle D/F pairs at each of these rows able to be converted into a double bed, of sorts.

You can check out all our seating recommendations for the A380 Version 3 here.

Summary

A relatively rapid rollout of the new A380 cabin products in 2017/18 has slowed significantly, with refitted aircraft and therefore new routes now appearing only every four to six months or so.

Original plans called for the refit of the 14 older aircraft with the new products by the end of 2020, though it now looks inevitable that the project will take much longer.

Nonetheless we should see at least a couple more routes switch across to the Version 3 planes next year. As always we’ll let you know what those are as soon as it’s confirmed. In the meantime you can always check our regularly updated tracker page for the new products to confirm where they are heading on the network.

(Cover Photo: Singapore Airlines)