Middle East carrier Etihad is scaling up its Singapore services with the addition of a second daily flight from mid-December 2024, for a total of 14 weekly services between Changi and Abu Dhabi – double the current total.

This will be a record capacity for the airline on the Singapore route, offering greater connections to the rest of Etihad’s network via its hub, with the inclusion of a morning departure option from Changi.

The schedule

Currently Etihad offers a single daily flight to and from Singapore, with a Boeing 787-10 aircraft departing from Abu Dhabi in the evening for a morning arrival in the Lion City.

The aircraft then spends all day on the ground at Changi Airport, before returning to Abu Dhabi that night.

From mid-December 2024 that will no longer be the case, with the aircraft returning straight to Abu Dhabi and an additional flight mounted each morning out of the carrier’s hub to Changi, which will then operate the evening flight back to the Middle East, for a total of two daily services in each direction.

Once the change takes effect, Etihad will downgauge from a single 336-seater Boeing 787-10 to two 290-seater Boeing 787-9s each day, though despite the lower seat count of each aircraft this will still represent a 73% total capacity increase on the route.

Here’s how the schedule looks once the double-daily service begins.

Singapore Abu Dhabi
From 15th December 2024

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	EY497 787-9
SIN 09:40		AUH 13:35
Duration: 07:55
	EY499 787-9
SIN 21:00		AUH 00:55*
Duration: 07:55

* Next day

With arrival in Abu Dhabi at 1.35pm, the new morning timing meets a smaller but still extensive connection bank at the Middle East hub, with onward transits on Etihad to the likes of London Heathrow (A380), Munich, Frankfurt and Rome, allowing daytime travel all the way from Asia, with an early evening arrival in Europe the same day.

Abu Dhabi Singapore
From 15th December 2024

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	EY498 787-9
AUH 08:10		SIN 19:30
Duration: 07:20
	EY496 787-9
AUH 21:00		SIN 08:20*
Duration: 07:20

* Next day

The newly added service in the Abu Dhabi – Singapore direction is also a daytime one, landing into Changi at 7.30pm.

Etihad flights use Terminal 2 at Singapore Changi Airport, with the airline directing lounge-eligible passengers to the SATS lounge in that terminal.

In Abu Dhabi, Etihad’s brand new lounges in the recently-opened Terminal A are available for departing and transit passengers, with complimentary access for those in eligible cabin classes or with sufficient frequent flyer status, or paid access for others.

This frequency increase for the Singapore route will mean Etihad offers a total of 87 weekly flights between South East Asia and its Abu Dhabi hub, following a similar doubling of frequencies to and from Kuala Lumpur from January 2024.

Here’s how the airline’s network in this region will look, as of late December 2024:

• Bangkok (18/wk)
• Jakarta (10/wk)
• Kuala Lumpur (14/wk)
• Manila (14/wk)
• Phuket (17/wk)
• Singapore (14/wk)

Cabin products

On these Singapore flights, Etihad uses its two-class Boeing 787-9 aircraft with the older ‘Etihad Studio’ Business Class seats from Safran Seats (formerly Zodiac Aerospace), with an alternating forwards-backwards facing configuration.

Forward facing seats are positioned closer to the window and convert into an 80.5-inch fully flat bed, while their rear facing counterparts fall a little short due to their design, at 76 inches, so pick a forward-facing seat for the longer bed (A or K positions).

Seat width is 22 inches.

Wi-Fi is available on board, charged at the following rates:

• Chat: US$4.99
  A text-only connection for chat and messaging applications.
• Surf: US$24.99
  Unlimited data for the whole flight.

Etihad Guest members get a free Chat package, while Platinum members get a free Surf package and Gold members are entitled to a 25% discount on the Surf package.

This recent review shows you what to expect from the experience in Etihad’s Boeing 787-9 Business Studio.

While the latest Etihad Boeing 787-9s delivered have been refitted with the carrier’s new 1-2-1 Business Class product based on the Collins Elements platform, including a closing privacy door, these are not planned for the Singapore route at the time of writing.

Let’s hope we start to this product in future on the Singapore route, since it looks to be a great progression towards a more modern, private experience in Business Class, with the latest technology including faster Viasat Wi-Fi and wireless charging.

In Economy Class, Etihad offers a 3-3-3 configuration on its Boeing 787-9 aircraft, with seat pitch of at least 31 inches. The carrier does not offer a Premium Economy product.

Award redemptions

Here’s an example of award pricing with various frequent flyer programmes if you’re heading from Singapore to Abu Dhabi.

Etihad Singapore to Abu Dhabi
FFP	Economy	Business
Etihad Guest	30,000* +S$164	70,000* +S$388
Flying Blue	23,000 +S$164	45,500 +S$300
AAdvantage	25,000 +S$64	40,000 +S$64
Aeroplan	40,000 +S$104	60,000 +S$104

* Starting rate for GuestSeat, can be higher

As you can see, taxes and charges can be substation for Etihad redemptions with some programmes, most notably with Etihad Guest itself in Business Class, even if you manage to secure one of the GuestSeat (i.e. “saver”) rates.

For a perhaps more useful routing to Europe, for example from Singapore to Frankfurt via Abu Dhabi, here’s how the rates look.

Etihad Singapore to Frankfurt (via Abu Dhabi)
FFP	Economy	Business
Etihad Guest	60,000* +S$264	140,000* +S$686
AAdvantage	35,000 +S$79	75,000 +S$79
Flying Blue	48,000 +S$281	89,500 +S$550
Aeroplan	50,000 +S$119	80,000 +S$119

* Starting rate for GuestSeat, can be higher

Aeroplan becomes a great option for Asia – Europe redemptions on Etihad, at 80,000 miles + S$119 in Business Class, given that most of our readers don’t have a ready stash of AAdvantage miles.

Etihad sometimes offers some competitive cash fares between Asia and Europe, from time to time.

We’ve seen round-trip economy rates as low as S$800 from Singapore to Barcelona and back, for example, with one-way deals for half that – at around S$400.

In Business Class, the airline was offering sub-S$2,500 round-trip fares from Kuala Lumpur to selected European cities earlier this year once its second daily service started there, and while we may not see fares as low as that from Singapore, hopefully there will be some reasonable deals once this new flight is added.

Etihad is on an ambitious post-COVID network expansion lately, and later this year that will also see the carrier doubling its flight frequencies between Singapore and its Abu Dhabi hub, with the addition of a morning departure from Changi and a daytime flight in the opposite direction too.

For those who avoid overnight flights, these new timings will allow you to fly in daylight all the way to Europe via the Middle East, an option already offered by competitors like Emirates, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines.

Miles redemptions on Etihad aren’t the best value, though last-minute availability tends to be good at certain times of year, and the additional capacity might improve that further.

(Cover Photo: Marvin Mutz)