The effects of COVID-19 on the aviation industry have meant one thing for certain as far as Singapore Airlines is concerned – fleet rationalisation. A recent review of aircraft requirements and the future operating network has resulted in what will surely be the highest number of cabin products lost from the network in a single year.
Love them or loathe them, no fewer than four seat types are a thing of the past for the national carrier, which has been forced to write down older aircraft, as a result of what looks to be a slow post-COVID recovery phase into a leaner shape and size for the future SIA.
Here’s our first in a four-part series where we look back at each seat type retired in 2020, with this focus on the 2009 Regional Business Class model.
Probably the only seat type almost no one will miss is the older Regional Business Class, in a 2-2-2 layout and first introduced with the arrival of the carrier’s leased Airbus A330s in February 2009.
The seats were later fitted to Boeing 777-300s followed by 777-200s (the non-ER variants in each case), becoming a regular fixture not only on regional flights but even some longer overnight services to and from Japan and Australia.
Before we go into more detail on the Singapore Airlines version, let’s take a look at where the seat itself came from.
The seat design
Singapore Airlines was the launch customer for this particular seat – the Weber 7118 manufactured by Weber Aircraft, LLC. based in Texas, USA.