Singapore Airlines scaling back A350 ULR flights – is a cabin refit on the cards?

During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Singapore Airlines put all seven of its ultra-long-haul Airbus A350 ULRs into temporary storage, as non-stop flights to and from the USA were cut back to a single skeleton service that linked Changi to Los Angeles just a few days a week.

With average passenger loads of around 20 on these flights in May 2020, the carrier’s Airbus A350 Long Haul fleet was more than up to the job, and indeed the ULRs remained mothballed for eight months, until some demand began to recover in late 2020.

Today all seven aircraft in the ULR fleet are back operating regular services, but in less than three months’ time that’s set to change, as these six-year-old jets need some extended time in the hangar.

Is a rumoured cabin refit on these aircraft also part of the plan? If so, we suspect we’ll be seeing the carrier’s latest Business Class seats rolled out a lot sooner than we thought, on some of the world’s longest flights.

A350 ULR schedules are being cut

From 1st May 2024, Singapore Airlines is scaling back its Airbus A350 ULR operations from 42 flights per week down to only 34 flights a week, and it’s not a temporary blip.

With daily flights in each direction between Singapore and New York JFK, Newark and San Francisco, the carrier’s seven-strong Airbus A350 ULR fleet is currently clocking up 752 hours of flying a week.

That’s an average daily utilisation of 15 hours 20 minutes per aircraft per day, even higher than the fleet was working pre-COVID (14 hours per aircraft per day).

From May 2024 it’s a different story, as you can see in the following table.

SIA Airbus A350 ULR Flights
Route	Now 30 Apr 2024	1 May 2024 31 Jan 2025
SQ36: SIN-LAX SQ35: LAX-SIN	— —	3/wk 3/wk
SQ24: SIN-JFK SQ23: JFK-SIN	7/wk 7/wk	7/wk 7/wk
SQ22: SIN-EWR SQ21: EWR-SIN	7/wk 7/wk	7/wk 7/wk
SQ34: SIN-SFO SQ33: SFO-SIN	7/wk 7/wk	— —
Total	42/wk	34/wk

This slimmed-down roster for the carrier’s ultra-long-haul jets will be effective until 31st January 2025, according to GDS timetables, reverting back to the current schedule again from 1st February 2025.

With daily SQ36/35 San Francisco flights reassigned to the Airbus A350 Long Haul during this period, the ULR will only fly three Los Angeles flights per week, in addition to its daily New York JFK and Newark services.

That brings daily utilisation down by 17% to 683 hours per week, or 12 hours 45 minutes per aircraft per day, assuming all seven jets remain in service.

However, keeping all seven flying isn’t the plan.

While the current ULR schedule needs six aircraft working full-time to operate, with a seventh as a spare, the new trimmed flying schedule can be operated with only five aircraft, six including a spare.

That effectively means a whole aircraft is being taken out of the flying schedule, and it applies for nine months.

Maintenance downtime

Singapore Airlines has confirmed to Mainly Miles that all seven of the Airbus A350 ULRs in the fleet are heading for the hangar over the coming months, a process that will happen one aircraft at a time for scheduled maintenance inspections.

“All of Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) Airbus A350-900 ULR aircraft will undergo scheduled maintenance in the coming months.

“As a result, SIA has adjusted its aircraft deployment for some flights on its San Francisco and Los Angeles services from May 2024 to the first quarter of 2025.”

SIA Spokesperson

This appears to be for the aircraft’s “C2” checks, which according to the Airbus A350 Maintenance Planning Document is required when the aircraft reaches 72 months (6 years) old, following first delivery.

Other non-ULR A350s in the fleet of a similar age have recently had this check completed, like 9V-SMT which turned six in December 2023 and had its check completed between 21st December 2023 and 29th January 2023 (40 days).

Prior to that, recent C2 check completions include:

• 9V-SMS: 26th November 2023 till 29th December 2023 (34 days)

• 9V-SMR: 24th September 2023 till 30th November 2023 (37 days)

As you can see, the check takes around 35-40 days.

Here’s how SIA’s A350 ULR fleet is approaching that critical six-year age mark.

Singapore Airlines Airbus A350 ULR Fleet
Registration	Age (Feb 2024)	Turns 6 years old on:
9V-SGA	5.4 yrs	22 Sep 2024
9V-SGB	5.4 yrs	28 Sep 2024
9V-SGC	5.4 yrs	5 Oct 2024
9V-SGD	5.3 yrs	26 Oct 2024
9V-SGE	5.3 yrs	16 Nov 2024
9V-SGF	5.3 yrs	22 Nov 2024
9V-SGG	5.2 yrs	15 Dec 2024

Given that the check takes up to 40 days for each aircraft, and there are seven A350 ULRs in the fleet that need to work completing, it will take nine months for all of the ULRs to be finished.

Since 9V-SGG’s C2 check falls due in December 2024, and the airline is only taking one ULR aircraft out of service at a time, the checks must start a bit earlier than the six-year point for some aircraft, in May 2024.

Aside from their COVID storage, this will be the longest the A350 ULR aircraft have been on the ground since delivery. It’s a good opportunity to refit the cabins, and that’s not just wild speculation.

In mid-2008, Singapore Airlines similarly took its five Airbus A340-500 aircraft out of service and refitted their cabins with an all-Business Class configuration, necessitating a reduction in non-stop Los Angeles flights.

A refit is rumoured

Back in July 2023, the well-connected Executive Traveller site reported on information it had received suggesting that Singapore Airlines was planning to refit its Airbus A350 ULR cabins.

If that does turn out to be the case, and the reduction in ULR flight schedules certainly supports a refit programme across all seven aircraft, we think the airline would be unable to resist showing off its new and as-yet-unseen Business Class seat at the same time.

This product was actually signed off way back in 2021, and was originally due to be launched on the Boeing 777-9 that year. That plane likely won’t enter service with SIA until 2026, two years from now.

In the meantime, carriers like Qantas, Lufthansa and Japan Airlines have revealed or even introduced their own brand new Business Class suites with closing privacy doors. SIA must be itching to do the same.

The pressure is intensifying too.

Qantas will steal the crown from SIA’s ULR fleet by operating the world’s longest non-stop flights next year, with direct Sydney – London and Sydney – New York services using Airbus A350-1000 ULR aircraft.

The Aussie carrier’s closed-door seats in Business Class on these jets already look miles ahead of SIA’s offering.

New Business Class seat announcements from Emirates, Turkish Airlines and staunch SIA rival Cathay Pacific are all in the pipeline this year too, while Singapore Airlines still uses a 10-year-old seat design on nearly all its long-haul flights in this cabin, with no details yet on what its replacement will look like.

It wouldn’t be the first time SIA had launched a new cabin product on the “wrong” aircraft either.

Back in 2006, delivery delays of the carrier’s first Airbus A380s forced it to launch the new long-haul Business Class product for that aircraft (2006 J) on the Boeing 777-300ER instead, leaving only Suites as the major reveal when the superjumbo was finally delivered, in late 2007.

What could be in store?

Essentially there are three possibilities for what will happen to SIA’s A350 ULR fleet this year as a result of this news:

• Nothing other than routine maintenance (C2 check) across all seven ULRs progressively – with a return to service in their current cabin configuration, with current seats.

• Refit of all seven A350 ULR aircraft to a different cabin configuration. For example, more Business Class seats and fewer Premium Economy Class seats, but with the same products currently installed.

• Refit of all seven A350 ULR aircraft with the carrier’s new (currently unseen) Business Class and/or Premium Economy Class cabin products, designed for the much-delayed Boeing 777-9. This could be with the same or similar cabin class mix, or a new Business / Premium Economy balance.

This downtime could definitely be an opportunity to tweak the Business Class / Premium Economy seat ratio on these aircraft, to reflect the latest market demand.

Prior to COVID-19, there were reports of SIA struggling to fill the 94-seat Premium Economy cabin on its A350 ULR flights.

Back in 2008, Singapore Airlines reconfigured its fleet of Airbus A340-500 aircraft used for non-stop USA flights from 67 Business and 117 Premium Economy seats to a 100-seat all-Business Class layout, also taking the opportunity to upgrade to the latest seats (2006 J, at the time).

Is 35 days enough time to refit each cabin?

Yes.

In 2008, it took Singapore Airlines only four months to refit its five Airbus A340-500s, which plied non-stop US routes, in a brand new configuration of 100 Business Class seats, about three weeks per jet with one completed at a time.

KLM is turning out its cabin refits on the Boeing 777-300ER, which are getting brand new Business Class seats and a Premium Economy cabin for the first time, in around 18 days per aircraft, so 35-40 days for the C2 check is definitely enough time.

If SIA also installs new cabin products during this period, that would mean the first aircraft rolling out with the latest seats by around mid-June this year, just four months from now.

When might we know?

In 2008, when SIA refitted its fleet of five Airbus A340-500s with new Business Class seats, the airline announced its plans for the work in early March, with the first aircraft then completed in late June that year.

Assuming the cabin configuration is changing, and/or new cabin products will be installed on the A350 ULRs, that means the airline may well be announcing this relatively soon.

SIA’s new long-haul Business Class

While we haven’t seen what SIA has in store for its Boeing 777-9s (and therefore possibly the A350 ULRs too) in the Business Class cabin, there’s little doubt that the industry standard in this cabin is closing privacy doors.

Doors on Business Class seats debuted in October 2014 with JetBlue’s Mint product, but they are now “de rigueur” in this cabin, seen on the likes of Air France, British Airways, Delta, ANA, China Eastern, KLM and Qatar Airways.

The latest upcoming Airbus A350-1000 Business Class cabins for Qantas and the recently introduced ones at JAL also have closing privacy doors.

Malaysia Airlines will also launch a brand new Business Class on its upcoming Airbus A330neo aircraft later this year – the Collins Elements seat with closing privacy doors – a product that will also be retrofitted on its Airbus A350s in due course.

We therefore strongly suspect that SIA will be offering a direct aisle access Business Class product in a 1-2-1 configuration with privacy doors on the 777-9, and potentially therefore on the A350 ULR before that.

The airline’s most recent long-haul Business Class product, the 2017 J seat found on the carrier’s 12 Airbus A380s, is a very nice but very similar seat to the 2013 J version installed on other aircraft.

SIA stopped short of fitting doors to those seats, but it surely can’t afford not to have them now.

With or without doors, and it seems hard to believe it will be without, what else can we expect from SIA’s new long-haul Business Class seats?

Well we can safely expect modern touches like USB-C charging ports, wireless charging pads and bluetooth headphone connectivity to feature.

IFE screens should also inch bigger, along with the general industry trend. JAL’s latest system in Business Class is a 24-inch 4K high resolution offering, while SIA’s decade-old Boeing 777-300ER Business Class still has 18-inch LCD screens.

A double bed option at the middle seat pairs would also pique our interest.

The airline already offers this at three bulkhead rows on its Airbus A380s in Business Class, but it can be difficult to secure these, especially for last-minute bookings.

The airline does not traditionally favour herringbone designs, where the seats are angled either towards or away from the window / aisle, so we’d expect to see fuselage-aligned seats.

However, one concept SIA has embraced with its new Regional Business Class is the ‘staggered’ 1-2-1 arrangement, with seats being aligned against the window and then closer to the aisle at alternate rows.

This also allows for couple / ‘honeymoon’ options at alternate rows in the middle section, where those double beds could potentially come into play.

The new long-haul Business Class product might well go down that route, depending on the product and manufacturer selected.

SIA’s new long-haul Premium Economy Class

Singapore Airlines has already confirmed that its upcoming Boeing 777-9 will feature its second generation of Premium Economy Class seats, the first major upgrade for this cabin in 10 years.

It’s another possibility that the airline could bring this updated product to the A350 ULR this year, during the upcoming maintenance downtime, replacing the Safran Seats US Z535i models currently fitted.

There have been some interesting developments in the Premium Economy space lately, with Lufthansa soon adopting the ZIM Privacy seat, already used by partner Swiss.

These primarily improve privacy, as their name suggests, with extended winged panels at the headrest level.

JAL recently introduced a new Premium Economy product by Safran Seats France that features large sliding privacy partitions, probably the most impressive we’ve seen yet in this travel class.

JAL’s seats also have motorised leg rests that rise up to 90 degrees to increase the surface area of your seat, quite a nifty feature that could prove to be comfortable for watching TV or sleeping, while seat pitch is a whopping 42 inches (4 inches more than SIA currently offers).

Of course we’re hoping that Singapore Airlines will be making some similar improvements to its own Premium Economy offering, and it would be great to see it launched on these non-stop US routes, before the Boeing 777-9 arrives.

Singapore Airlines is cutting back Airbus A350 ULR flight schedules by 17%, a necessary step as it removes one aircraft at a time from the seven-strong fleet, from May 2024 until early next year.

While the primary reason is scheduled maintenance downtime, there’s a far more exciting possibility too.

Singapore Airlines has now sat on its brand new Business Class seat design for close to three years, and it was first supposed to enter service two years ago on the Boeing 777-9.

With that aircraft now looking to be a further two years away from delivery, SIA may have decided the time has come to showcase the product sooner rather than later, and the A350 ULR fleet could be the perfect platform on which to do it, while the carrier has this window of opportunity for a refit.

It’s also not out of the question that the airline’s second generation Premium Economy Class seat could make an earlier debut than planned.

Watch this space.

(Cover Photo: Dillon Chong)