It’s safe to say that Singapore Airlines has been struggling to keep more than around nine of its 12-strong Airbus A380 fleet consistently flying over the last year or so, as the beleaguered whale jets seems to need maintenance downtime almost as much as they crave jet fuel lately.

The flagship of the fleet – and the only aircraft with the carrier’s sought-after Suites cabin – is therefore giving the airline a torrid time on the scheduling front.

Earlier this month we reported how SIA is halving Airbus A380 flights on its lucrative Singapore – London Heathrow route, replacing one of its two daily superjumbo services with a Boeing 777-300ER instead for the whole of February and March next year.

It comes as 1 in 3 of carrier’s operating A380 fleet will be out of service due to maintenance requirements during that period, leaving only eight of the 12 jets flying.

We had hoped that the summer 2025 schedule would bring better news for the type’s presence on SIA’s network, but now there’s news of more cuts to the schedule, this time affecting Tokyo and Sydney.

Tokyo A380 services halved in 2025

Just three months ago, in August this year, Singapore Airlines announced that it would be flying its A380s back to Tokyo again for the first two months of next year’s summer season, between late March 2025 and the end of May 2025.

The service was set to replace a two-class Boeing 787-10 on a daily basis, and came just in time for the latter part of the peak Sakura (cherry blossom) travel season.

Unfortunately Singapore Airlines has now had to alter its plans for this flight, deploying the Airbus A380 only for the month of May 2025, half the originally-proposed period.

From 30th March 2025 to 30th April 2025, the SQ638/637 service will still feature a First Class cabin, thanks to deployment of the four-class Boeing 777-300ER, but will then only upgrade to the Airbus A380 from 1st May 2025 to 31st May 2025.

Here’s how the revised Singapore Airlines’ schedule looks on the Singapore – Tokyo Narita route from 1st May 2025 to 31st May 2025, with Airbus A380 service SQ638/637 highlighted.

Singapore Tokyo Narita
1st May – 31st May 2025

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ12 777-300ER
SIN 09:25		NRT 17:30
Duration: 07:05
	SQ638 A380
SIN 23:55		NRT 08:30*
Duration: 07:05

* Next day

Tokyo Narita Singapore
2nd May – 1st June 2025

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ637 A380
NRT 11:10		SIN 17:20
Duration: 07:10
	SQ11 777-300ER
NRT 19:00		SIN 01:15*
Duration: 07:15

* Next day

From 1st June 2025 onwards, the SQ638 service will revert back to two-class Boeing 787-10 operation, which in turn also applies to SQ637 in the Tokyo – Singapore direction from 2nd June 2025 onwards.

Sydney drops to one A380 per day for May 2025

It looks as though Tokyo doesn’t get its Airbus A380 service ‘for free’ next year, with this now-one-month deployment to and from Japan coming at the expense of one of the carrier’s regular daily superjumbo flights serving Sydney.

This will see the SQ221/232 flights downgauged to the Boeing 777-300ER from 1st May 2025 to 31st May 2025 in the Singapore – Sydney direction, and as a result from 2nd May 2025 to 1st June 2025 in the Sydney – Singapore direction.

During this period, Singapore Airlines will serve Sydney four times per day, with three flights using the Boeing 777-300ER and only one using the Airbus A380, as highlighted.

Singapore Sydney
1st May – 31st May 2025

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ231 A380
SIN 00:45		SYD 10:25
Duration: 07:40
	SQ241 777-300ER
SIN 07:15		SYD 16:55
Duration: 07:40
	SQ211 777-300ER
SIN 09:35		SYD 19:15
Duration: 07:40
	SQ221 A380 777-300ER
SIN 20:20		SYD 05:55*
Duration: 07:35

* Next day

Sydney Singapore
2nd May – 1st June 2025

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ212 777-300ER
SYD 07:55		SIN 14:15
Duration: 08:20
	SQ232 A380 777-300ER
SYD 11:00		SIN 17:30
Duration: 08:30
	SQ222 A380
SYD 15:00		SIN 21:20
Duration: 08:20
	SQ242 777-300ER
SYD 18:05		SIN 00:20*
Duration: 08:15

* Next day

This will leave the SQ231 and SQ222 flights as the sole Airbus A380 option each day on the Sydney route during May next year.

The change also halves the number of Suites available on the route from 84 to 42 per week in each direction, while increasing the Boeing 777-300ER First Class from 56 to 84 weekly.

For the rest of next year’s summer season though to late October 2025, Airbus A380 service is restored on SQ221/232 flights, returning the Sydney route to its usual year-round twice-daily superjumbo operation.

This isn’t the first time Sydney has had its A380 schedules cut by Singapore Airlines. For a total of eight weeks in summer 2024, these exact same flights were also downgauged to the Boeing 777 to allow for A380 maintenance downtime, albeit later in the season.

Sydney and Melbourne lose their fifth daily flights early

There are also some premature cuts to the SIA’s Sydney and Melbourne route capacity coming towards the end of the current winter timetable season too.

The carrier’s current seasonal boost to five times daily operation to Sydney was originally due to extend through to the end of March 2025, but will now be cut short by a month, with the additional SQ261/212 service ending on 28th February 2025 instead.

Furthermore, that flight will also downgauge to the 253-seat three-class Airbus A350 from 1st February 2025, instead of the 264-seat four-class Boeing 777-300ER.

On the Melbourne route, the carrier’s seasonal fifth daily service SQ247/248 also gets chopped nearly three weeks ahead of schedule, with the final outbound service on 10th March 2025, instead of 29th March 2025.

Suites passengers are the worst hit

While the changes to the Tokyo and Sydney routes aren’t a huge deal for those booked in Business Class, Premium Economy or Economy Class, if you snagged a Suites award or forked out cash for this exclusive cabin, the alternative seat you’ll now have isn’t quite on-par.

For Suites passengers already booked on affected flights, it will mean the experience changing from this…

to this…

Obviously that’s quite a downgrade and may be enough make you consider whether your miles or cash outlay for this cabin is still worthwhile.

On the Sydney route, if you are affected and downgraded to the Boeing 777-300ER you may be able to request a switch to the SQ231/222 service, which still has the A380 Suites cabin operating each day during May 2025.

For the Tokyo route, you’ll have to accept the Boeing 777-300ER First Class product during April 2025, or make new travel plans, since there is no Suites alternative offered.

That said, we do still enjoy the 2013 First Class product installed on the Boeing 777-300ERs, so don’t totally discount it. You can read our review of the product here.

In Business Class the impact is less consequential, with the newer 2017 seats on the A380 being replaced by the 2013 seats on the 777-300ER, since they are quite similar in most respects.

Where are SIA’s A380s flying?

Singapore Airlines is flying its Airbus A380s to only five cities (Delhi, Frankfurt, London, Mumbai and Sydney) consistently this winter season, as shown below.

SIA Winter 2024/25 A380 Flights (Nov 24 – Mar 25)
Route	Flights	Frequency
Delhi	SQ406/403	7 x weekly
Frankfurt (except 26 Dec, 15-31 Jan)	SQ326/325	7 x weekly
Hong Kong (16-31 Jan & 16-29 Mar only)	SQ892/893	7 x weekly
London Heathrow (27 Oct-23 Nov)	SQ322/317 SQ308/319 SQ318/321	7 x weekly 3 x weekly 4 x weekly
London Heathrow (24 Nov-31 Jan)	SQ322/317 SQ308/319	7 x weekly 7 x weekly
London Heathrow (1 Feb-29 Mar)	SQ322/317	7 x weekly
Mumbai	SQ424/423	7 x weekly
Shanghai (15-31 Jan only)	SQ830/833	7 x weekly
Sydney	SQ221/232 SQ231/222	7 x weekly 7 x weekly

For a full rundown of SIA’s Airbus A380 flight schedule between now and late March 2025, see our updated guide here.

For the summer 2025 season, where schedules remain provisional for now, the following A380 schedule is currently loaded.

SIA Summer 2025 A380 Flights (Apr 25 – Oct 25)
Route	Flights	Frequency
Delhi	SQ406/403	7 x weekly
Frankfurt	SQ326/325	7 x weekly
London Heathrow	SQ322/317 SQ308/319	7 x weekly 7 x weekly
Mumbai	SQ424/423	7 x weekly
Shanghai (23 Jun-31 Aug only)	SQ830/833	7 x weekly
Sydney (except 1-31 May)	SQ221/232 SQ231/222	7 x weekly 7 x weekly
Sydney (1-31 May)	SQ231/222	7 x weekly
Tokyo (1-31 May only)	SQ638/637	7 x weekly

Again only five cities will be consistently served by the A380 next summer under current plans; Delhi, Frankfurt, London, Mumbai and Sydney.

Generally speaking, the planned flying programme for SIA’s A380s over the next year can be operated with only eight A380s, with a ninth as an operational spare.

In February and March 2024, only eight aircraft are needed – seven to operate the flights, plus one acting as a spare, suggesting that four A380s (a third of the fleet) will be in maintenance during those two months.

KrisFlyer award rates

Here’s a reminder of the number of KrisFlyer miles needed for the Singapore – Tokyo and Singapore – Sydney routes.

KrisFlyer Redemption (one-way) Singapore ⇄ Tokyo
	Saver	Advantage
Economy	27,000	45,000
Premium Economy	37,500	n/a
Business	52,000	70,000
First / Suites	77,000	120,000

These rates apply to both Haneda and Narita flights.

At the time of writing, only a limited number of immediately-available awards in the A380 Suites cabin are available at the Advantage redemption level of 120,000, for normal KrisFlyer members. PPS Club members may have access to additional award space.

KrisFlyer Redemption (one-way) Singapore ⇄ Sydney
	Saver	Advantage
Economy	30,500	55,000
Premium Economy	51,000	n/a
Business	68,500	90,000
First / Suites	93,500	155,000

Airbus A380 maintenance woes continue to plague the Singapore Airlines fleet, and now the carrier has announced a new pair of service reductions for the summer 2025 season.

This will see a proposed two-month Airbus A380 service between Singapore and Tokyo slashed to just a single month – May 2025 – while that will now also result in one of two daily Sydney superjumbo flights downgauging to the Boeing 777-300ER, with 2013 First Class seats instead of Suites.

Thankfully on the Sydney route there may be an option to swap across to the remaining A380 flight, provided you’re happy to travel around 4 hours later than originally planned.

Let’s hope the airline’s flagship 12-strong superjumbo fleet can operate a bit more consistently on the network from the winter 2025/26 season onwards!

(Cover Photo: Plane’s Portrait Aviation Media / Malcolm Lu)