Singapore Airlines goes triple daily with A380s to London this summer

Singapore Airlines is bringing back a peak summer seats increase on its ‘cash cow’ London route this year, a regular capacity hike pre-pandemic for the carrier to tap increased demand during the UK and European holiday season, with three Airbus A380s plying the route each day during June and July 2023.

That will mean 18 of the carrier’s latest 2017 Suites and 234 of the latest 2017 Business Class seats in each direction per day on this city pair, in addition to a further four 2013 First Class seats and 48 2013 Business Class seats offered, on what will be the sole remaining Boeing 777 service.

Unfortunately if it’s a boon for award space you’re hoping for – hold your excitement because redemption space remains very limited at this stage.

In potential bad news for some readers, the extra A380 for this service doesn’t come free, but instead is at the expense of the Delhi and Mumbai routes for a six-week period, which will see their daily superjumbo services temporarily downgrade to Boeing 777s.

The schedule

This coming IATA summer schedule season, which kicks off from 26th March 2023 and runs until 28th October 2023, Singapore Airlines is planning four daily flights on its London route, as follows:

• SQ306/305: Boeing 777
• SQ308/319: Airbus A380
• SQ318/321: Boeing 777
• SQ322/317: Airbus A380

From 15th June 2023 to 30th July 2023, the 1.10am departure SQ306 from Changi, arriving into London at 7.45am the same day, will upgrade to the Airbus A380.

In turn on the same dates, the return service SQ305 leaving London at 9.25am and landing back in Singapore at 5.30am the following day, will also benefit.

Here’s how the schedule looks during this period, with the additional A380 service operating on highlighted flights.

Singapore    London

15th June 2023
to 30th July 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ306 777-300ER A380
SIN 01:10		LHR 07:45
	SQ308 A380
SIN 09:00		LHR 15:40
	SQ318 777-300ER
SIN 12:35		LHR 19:15
	SQ322 A380
SIN 23:30		LHR 05:55*

* Next day

London    Singapore

15th June 2023
to 30th July 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ305 777-300ER A380
LHR 09:25		SIN 05:30*
	SQ317 A380
LHR 11:25		SIN 07:30*
	SQ319 A380
LHR 20:50		SIN 16:55*
	SQ321 777-300ER
LHR 22:05		SIN 18:10*

* Next day

The SQ306/305 superjumbo flights during this peak period will replace a three-class Boeing 777-300ER on a daily basis, meaning those already booked in First Class will enjoy a fantastic ‘upgrade’ to the 2017 Suites cabin in either (or both) directions, as applicable.

If you’re lucky enough to be in this group, log on to your booking now to select your seat, since the double bed may be an option for couples (1A/2A or 1F/2F), and even for solo travellers not all SIA A380 Suites are made equal – they get progressively smaller the further back you go!

In total across all cabins during this period, Singapore Airlines will be offering 23,478 seats per week to and from London, 4% more than pre-COVID (based on July 2019), and a record capacity on the city pair for the carrier.

This is largely thanks to the higher total capacity of the new Airbus A380 cabin fits, which have at least 30 more seats in total than their predecessor configurations.

KrisFlyer award rates

Here are the latest KrisFlyer award rates for the Singapore – London route, including for the (likely very elusive) Suites cabin.

KrisFlyer Redemption Singapore ⇄ London (one-way)
	Saver	Advantage
Economy	42,000	70,000
Premium Economy	71,000	n/a
Business	103,500	123,000
First / Suites	141,000	225,500

Don’t expect this capacity increase to coincide with a flood of Saver awards, given the popularity of the route, especially in Suites which we notice are still only immediately confirmable at Advantage rates on these SQ306/305 flights for now.

There are some Business Class Saver awards though, if you’re interested in the latest 2017 long-haul seat on the A380.

There are even opportunities to score two Saver awards in Business Class on a few dates, which may be very useful during the peak summer season.

While most of the additional capacity on these flights will understandably go to revenue passengers, do keep an eye on this one in the months ahead as award space can be added at any time.

SIA’s ‘cash cow’ route

Singapore to London Heathrow is SIA’s ‘cash cow’, earning the highest revenue of any route pre-COVID and without a doubt today as well.

The carrier was netting over US$2 million (S$2.7 million) per day in revenue Heathrow flights alone in 2019, 33% more than it made on Singapore – Sydney (S$2.0 million per day) and 68% more than third place Jakarta (S$1.6 million per day).

That’s always made London a high priority destination for Singapore Airlines in terms of capacity and the latest cabin products.

Unfortunately it’s also the reason award space can be hard to come by, and then there’s the very high Air Passenger Duty (APD) payable on award tickets departing from the United Kingdom to contend with, significantly adding to the cash cost for a round-trip redemption.

Delhi and Mumbai downgrade

Singapore Airlines is not magicking an Airbus A380 out of nowhere to achieve this capacity increase to and from London next summer, with the aircraft effectively ‘borrowed’ from the Delhi and Mumbai routes during this six-week period.

That will see the two Indian cities regular daily SQ406/403 (DEL) and SQ424/423 (BOM) superjumbo service operated by Boeing 777-300ERs instead, between mid-June and late July 2023.

If you’re booked in Suites on these flights during the affected date range, there’s a significant product shift from A380 Suites to the Boeing 777 First Class seats.

Once the ‘Heathrow hike’ is restored to normal from 30th July 2023, these Delhi and Mumbai flights will thankfully get their A380s back, but it’s an unfortunate hit in the meantime.

In addition to SQ406/403, Delhi continues to be served by daily Boeing 787 (SQ402/401) flights.

In addition to SQ424/423, Mumbai continues to be served by daily Airbus A350 Medium Haul (SQ422/421) and twice weekly Airbus A350 Long Haul (SQ426/425) services.

Where else is the A380 flying?

Next summer, between late March and late October 2023, there have already been some announced changes to SIA’s Airbus 380 operations.

Significantly, this will see the reintroduction of the type on daily Melbourne flights and double daily Sydney services, at the expense of the popular Singapore – Frankfurt – New York route, which will downgrade to the Boeing 777.

Here’s the latest breakdown of where you’ll see the superjumbo on the network this summer, across nine cities (but confusingly, not all at the same time!).

Singapore Airlines A380 Flights
Summer 2023

Route	28 Mar 15 May	16 May 14 Jun	15 Jun 30 Jul	31 Jul 28 Oct
Delhi	7/wk	7/wk	—	7/wk
Frankfurt	7/wk	—	—	—
Hong Kong	7/wk	7/wk	7/wk	7/wk
London	14/wk	14/wk	21/wk	14/wk
Melbourne	—	7/wk	7/wk	7/wk
Mumbai	7/wk	7/wk	—	7/wk
New York JFK*	7/wk	—	—	—
Shanghai	2/wk	2/wk	2/wk	2/wk
Sydney	7/wk	14/wk	14/wk	14/wk

* via Frankfurt

As we mentioned in our recent fleet update, 11 of the final 12 Airbus A380s returning to the SIA fleet have now had their refits completed (or already had the latest cabins anyway), with 10 of these in regular service at the time of writing.

Sometime next year, a fleet of 12 superjumbos should be in full force, which hopefully means at least one more route announcement (mais oui! 😉).

Singapore Airlines will be flying three daily London flights using the Airbus A380 for the first time since 2019 this summer, with the latest schedule representing the carrier’s highest ever capacity to and from the British capital – its most lucrative route.

Award space isn’t amazing, given the continued high demand and limited supply from other carriers to and from markets like this, but there are still some Saver Business Class seats to be had on this upgraded service.

Unfortunately if you’re booked on the A380 to or from Delhi or Mumbai from mid-June to late July next year, a downgrade to the Boeing 777 is in store, with the biggest pinch felt by Suites passengers, who will now find themselves in 2013 First Class.

(Cover Photo: Josh Hallett)