Singapore Airlines has announced its third new route for 2024, with Beijing’s Daxing International Airport joining the network from mid-November, following a reinstatement of Brussels flights back in April, and more recently an expansion across to London’s second airport Gatwick earlier this month.
Once these new flights begin, Beijing will become the fourth city on the Singapore Airlines network where the carrier adopts a dual-airport strategy for its passenger flights.
- Beijing (Capital and Daxing)
- London (Gatwick and Heathrow)
- New York (JFK and Newark)
- Tokyo (Haneda and Narita)
Aside from Air China, which operates an extensive domestic network from Daxing, Singapore Airlines will be the first international Star Alliance carrier to use the airport.
“China is a key market for the Singapore Airlines Group. This new flight to Beijing Daxing allows SIA to offer an additional daily service to Beijing, a popular destination for both tourist and business travellers.”
Dai Haoyu, Acting SVP Marketing Planning, Singapore Airlines
Daxing has become more of a Oneworld and SkyTeam stronghold since it opened in 2019, with the likes of British Airways, Malaysia Airlines and Qatar Airways having transferred all their Beijing flights across to the new airport in recent years.
The schedule
Singapore Airlines will operate a daily flight to and from Beijing Daxing Airport from 11th November 2024 through to 29th March 2025 using its Boeing 787-10 aircraft, apart from a two-week gap in services from 6th January to 18th January 2025.
The Airbus A350 Medium Haul will be used instead of the Boeing 787-10 for three days in early January on this service.
Here’s how the schedule looks, with SQ810/811 flights timed closely in line with existing SQ800/805 services to the city’s Capital airport.
Singapore Beijing Daxing
11 Nov 2024 – 5 Jan 2025
&
19 Jan 2025 – 29 Mar 2025
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
 |
SQ810 787-10* |
||||||||
| SIN 00:30 |
PKX 06:35 |
||||||||
| Duration: 06:05 | |||||||||
|
SQ811 787-10* |
||||||||
| PKX 09:25 |
SIN 15:50 |
||||||||
| Duration: 06:25 | |||||||||
* A350 MH from 2nd January 2025 to 5th January 2025
That means it’s an overnight flight up to the Chinese capital after midnight, arriving the same morning, with a daytime service in the return direction getting back into Changi shortly before 4pm each day.
At the time of writing, Singapore Airlines has not loaded any Beijing Daxing services for next summer season, which starts on 30th March 2025, though we expect these schedules will be loaded in due course, subject to slot approval.
Singapore Airlines will join China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines as the third operator to fly between Singapore and Beijing Daxing Airport.
SIA’s Boeing 787-10s
Singapore Airlines currently has a fleet of 22 Boeing 787-10s, but crucially is expecting to take delivery of a further four of these aircraft during the current financial year.
This 18% expansion of the 787 fleet is no doubt one reason the airline is able to introduce the type on these upcoming Beijing Daxing services.
SIA’s Boeing 787-10s are configured with 36 seats in Business Class and 301 seats in Economy Class, giving it the second-highest capacity of any aircraft in the fleet, with 337 seats in total, second only to the Airbus A380.
The aircraft features the 2018 Regional product in Business Class, in a 1-2-1 configuration with direct aisle access for all passengers.
We’ve got reviews of both the window seats and the middle ‘couple’ pairs on this aircraft type, which you can find linked below:
About Beijing Daxing Airport
Daxing International Airport opened in 2019, and is situated on the border of Beijing and Hebei province, approximately 46km south of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. This location places it 40% further from downtown than Beijing Capital Airport, which is located 32km to the northeast.
Due to its proximity, Daxing International Airport offers greater convenience for travellers visiting the Hebei and Tianjin regions. A taxi ride from Daxing to Tiananmen Square takes slightly over an hour, compared to only 35 minutes from Capital Airport.
Nevertheless, a high-speed train connection from Daxing Airport to Beijing West railway station takes only 28 minutes, for those visiting the city. There is also a direct subway line to Caoqiao station in south Beijing, taking only 19 minutes.
The huge passenger terminal at the airport is the world’s largest, and can accommodate 75 million passengers annually.
The airport is expected to handle 47 million passengers in 2024, over 70% of the 66 million Singapore Changi Airport should achieve in the same period.
“Singapore Airlines is the first foreign airline to operate services from Beijing Daxing International Airport to Singapore. We believe the inception of Singapore Airlines at Beijing Daxing International Airport will bring about a renewed sense of energy and opportunities, fulfilling the travel demand between both countries as we jointly work together for more good things to come.”
Kong Yue, Vice President, Beijing Daxing International Airport
That’s impressive when you consider that the airport is only five years old. Beijing Capital Airport is also expected to handle 66 million passengers in 2024, for 113 million across both of the city’s airports.
Future expansion at Daxing should see capacity reach 100 million passengers per year by 2040.
SIA pushing 124% of pre-COVID capacity to Beijing
Prior to COVID-19, Singapore Airlines was operating 21 times per week (three times daily) to and from Beijing Capital Airport, with two Boeing 777-300ER flights and one Airbus A380 flight each day, based on December 2019 schedules.
In August 2023, the carrier made a wide-ranging announcement about its summer 2024 route changes, which included the news that its post-pandemic services to and from Beijing Capital Airport would increase from 14 times weekly back to the full former 21 times weekly operation from 1st May 2024.
For whatever reason, the actual increase happened over a month later than planned on 4th June 2024, and even then frequencies only increased to 18 flights per week, rather than the promised 21.
The service will finally hit 21 flights per week (three times daily) from 5th August 2024.
Despite the slightly prolonged return to full schedules on its Beijing flights, Singapore Airlines will actually retain three daily flights to Capital Airport even once this additional Daxing Airport service kicks off, cementing a solid 24% seat capacity increase on the Singapore-Beijing city pair compared to 2019.
| SIA Singapore – Beijing Passenger Seat Capacity (weekly, one-way) |
|||
| Dec 2019 | Dec 2024 |
Change | |
| Beijing Capital Airport |
6,993 | 6,328 | 9.5% |
| Beijing Daxing Airport |
— | 2,359 | |
| Total | 6,993 | 8,687 | 24.2% |
Here’s a summary of SIA’s Beijing Capital Airport flight schedule that will operate during the upcoming winter season (click to expand):
SIA Beijing Capital Schedule
Singapore Beijing Capital
27 Oct 2024 – 29 Mar 2025
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
|
SQ800 A350 MH |
||||||||
| SIN 01:10 |
PEK 07:15 |
||||||||
| Duration: 06:05 | |||||||||
|
SQ802 777-300ER |
||||||||
| SIN 08:45 |
PEK 14:50 |
||||||||
| Duration: 06:05 | |||||||||
|
SQ806 787-10 |
||||||||
| SIN 16:55 |
PEK 23:00 |
||||||||
| Duration: 06:05 | |||||||||
Beijing Capital Singapore
27 Oct 2024 – 29 Mar 2025
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
|
SQ801 787-10 |
||||||||
| PEK 00:10 |
SIN 06:45 |
||||||||
| Duration: 06:35 | |||||||||
|
SQ805 A350 MH |
||||||||
| PEK 08:45 |
SIN 15:30 |
||||||||
| Duration: 06:45 | |||||||||
|
SQ807 777-300ER |
||||||||
| PEK 16:40 |
SIN 23:15 |
||||||||
| Duration: 06:35 | |||||||||
As you can see, First Class and Premium Economy cabins on SIA’s Beijing flights will remain exclusive to the SQ802/807 flights operating to and from the city’s Capital Airport, which use four-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
KrisFlyer awards
These are the KrisFlyer miles needed for the Singapore – Beijing route.
| KrisFlyer Redemption (one-way) Singapore ⇄ Beijing |
||
| Class | Saver | Advantage |
| Economy | 21,500 | 40,000 |
| Premium Economy | 34,500 | n/a |
| Business | 43,000 | 65,000 |
| First / Suites | 58,500 | 98,000 |
Note that Premium Economy and First / Suites award rates are only applicable to Beijing Capital flights at this stage, since Daxing services will use two-class Boeing 787-10s with only Economy and Business seats installed.
Taxes and fees payable per passenger on top of your miles are low on this route, totalling around:
- S$65 from Singapore to Beijing
- S$17 from Beijing to Singapore
As is usually the case when brand new flights like this are added to the roster, initial award space is generous.
Right from the start of services, it’s possible to book six Business Class saver awards on almost all flights on this route in both directions (the highest number the booking system allows).
In fact the only period we saw where Business Class awards already waitlisted or completely unavailable is over Chinese New Year in 2025, from late January through to early February.
While this award space is obviously generous, it’s actually also quite easy to secure Business Class Saver awards to and from Beijing Capital Airport on most dates, so the benefit of this new launch doesn’t quite have the punch of recent Brussels and London Gatwick routes.
Remember that you won’t be able to take advantage of KrisFlyer’s T-355 days award space on Beijing Daxing flights at the moment, until the summer 2025 schedule is loaded into the reservation system for this route.
Cash fares
Here’s an example of the cash fares available for booking this new Beijing Daxing route, based on travel in early December 2024.
| Singapore – Beijing Daxing Cash Fares |
|||
| SIN → PKX (one-way) |
PKX → SIN (one-way) |
SIN ⇆ PKX (return) |
|
| Economy | S$443 | CNY 1,260 (S$235) |
S$407 |
| Business | S$2,225 | CNY 8,820 (S$1,645) |
S$2,687 |
As you can see, an Economy Class redemption is definitely not worth it while fares are this low, however as usual for Business Class you’re getting good value with a Saver award.
As an aside, booking an Economy Lite return fare from Singapore to Beijing Daxing and back might be one of the cheapest ways to accrue Elite miles if you need them to climb the KrisFlyer status ladder (2,734 Elite miles, for S$407).
SIA Group’s China network
Beijing Daxing will represent the Singapore Airlines Group’s 22nd destination in China, based on December 2024 schedules, as outlined below.
SIA Group China destinations
w/c 2 Dec 2024
| Destination | Flight Frequency | |
 SIA |
 Scoot |
|
| Beijing Capital | 21/wk | — |
| Beijing Daxing | 7/wk |
— |
| Chengdu | TBC* | — |
| Chongqing | TBC* | — |
| Fuzhou | — | 4/wk |
| Guangzhou | 7/wk | 7/wk |
| Haikou | — | 4/wk |
| Hangzhou | — | 6/wk |
| Jinan | — | 3/wk |
| Nanchang | — | 3/wk |
| Nanjing | — | 10/wk |
| Nanning | — | 3/wk |
| Ningbo | — | 3/wk |
| Qingdao | — | 6/wk |
| Shanghai | 28/wk | — |
| Shenyang | — | 6/wk |
| Shenzhen | TBC* | — |
| Tianjin | — | 7/wk |
| Wuhan | — | 7/wk |
| Xi’an | — | 7/wk |
| Xiamen | TBC* | — |
| Zhengzhou | — | 4/wk |
* Schedules not yet loaded, while SIA continues to grapple with permissions on these former SilkAir routes, which seem to come through short-term and in phases
Singapore Airlines also lists Changsha and Kunming as Scoot routes, for a total of 24 destinations in China, but these are both set to end on 25th October 2024, before SIA’s Daxing flights begin.
Which lounge?
These new flights will operate from Terminal 3 at Singapore Changi Airport, so it’s the new SilverKris lounge complex for those eligible through status or travel class prior to departure on the new Beijing Daxing flights.
Beijing Daxing Airport has a variety of lounges available, but it hasn’t yet been confirmed which one eligible Singapore Airlines passengers departing in Business Class, or in Economy Class with KrisFlyer Elite Gold or PPS Club status, will be invited to use.
Lounges currently used by some other airlines at the airport include:
- BCS International Premium Lounge
Etihad, Qatar Airways, Royal Brunei - China Eastern by Plaza Premium Lounge
British Airways, China Eastern - China Southern Sky Pearl Club Lounge
China Southern, Xiamen Air - International Sky Pearl VIP Lounge
Malaysia Airlines
It will be interesting to see which lounge SIA chooses at Daxing. Over at Beijing Capital Airport, its passengers are currently directed to the Air China lounge.
Summary
Singapore Airlines is expanding its services to the Chinese capital Beijing, with a new daily service to and from Daxing International Airport using its Boeing 787-10 aircraft from mid-November 2024.
Generous award space is loaded for Business Class saver redemptions on this route, while Economy Class fares are so low there’s little point wasting your miles – just pay cash and earn some Elite miles along the way instead.
Overall the new service, alongside a delayed reintroduction for triple-daily flights at the city’s Capital Airport, will boost SIA’s seat capacity between Singapore and Beijing to 124% of pre-COVID levels by the end of this year.
Separately, SIA will reintroduce seasonal direct flights to Sapporo, Japan in December 2024, after a five-year hiatus on the route.
(Cover Photo: British Airways)