Singapore Airlines holds the distinction of being the longest-serving long-haul carrier at Manchester Airport in the UK, having commenced operations there in 1986, following a three-year battle to secure rights from the UK Government.

Initially, the Government demanded that Singapore Airlines relinquish a valuable slot pair at London Heathrow as a condition for approving a Manchester service, but in the end SIA never gave up a single Heathrow slot, and has now offered regular Manchester flights for 38 years, apart from the obvious gap during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unfortunately there’s been some negative news around the carrier’s Manchester operations recently, with confirmation that five times weekly flights between the UK’s third largest city and Houston in the USA will be ending from late March 2025.

This was set to leave the airline with only five times weekly Manchester – Singapore flights from April 2025 onwards, but plans seem to be afoot for a significantly larger operation than that.

Singapore Airlines’ new Manchester slot approvals

With its Manchester departures set to wind down from 10 per week (requiring 20 weekly takeoff and landing slots) to just 5 per week by the end of March next year, following the cessation of the Houston route, we expected Singapore Airlines to apply for only 10 weekly slots (enough for 5 takeoffs and landings per week) for the summer 2025 season.

That said, it wouldn’t have been surprising if the airline had applied for 14 weekly takeoff and landing slots, sufficient to operate daily flights between Singapore and Manchester – one of the main reasons we were keeping an eye on this.

What the airline has actually both asked for and been approved for at Manchester is triple what it requires, and more than double what we expected.

That’s right – Singapore Airlines has applied for and been successfully awarded 900 weekly takeoff and landing slots at Manchester for the 30-week summer 2025 season – 30 per week – enough for 15 weekly takeoffs and landings.

If utilised, this would give the airline its largest-ever presence at Manchester, with 50% more slots than it currently uses for its five-times-weekly Singapore and Houston flights.

Remarkably, it also represents a 200% increase, triple the slots required, for the only confirmed flights the airline will continue from April 2025 – a five-times-weekly non-stop Manchester – Singapore service.

SIA’s summer 2025 Manchester slots

Here’s how the new approved slots look on the weekly schedule from 30th March 2025 to 25th October 2025.

We’ve highlighted the slots the airline needs for its confirmed non-stop Manchester – Singapore service (SQ301/302), and those that are now available to the airline in excess of that service’s needs.

Manchester Slot Approvals Summer 2025
Day	Time (UTC)	Type	Notes
Monday	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	10:00 – 10:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
Tuesday	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	For existing SQ302
	09:00 – 09:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	10:00 – 10:59	A350 LH	For existing SQ301
Wednesday	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	For existing SQ302
	09:00 – 09:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	10:00 – 10:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	10:00 – 10:59	A350 LH	For existing SQ301
Thursday	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	10:00 – 10:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
Friday	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	For existing SQ302
	09:00 – 09:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	10:00 – 10:59	A350 LH	For existing SQ301
Saturday	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	For existing SQ302
	09:00 – 09:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	10:00 – 10:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	10:00 – 10:59	A350 LH	For existing SQ301
Sunday	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	08:00 – 08:59	A350 LH	For existing SQ302
	09:00 – 09:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	10:00 – 10:59	A350 LH	Additional slot
	10:00 – 10:59	A350 LH	For existing SQ301

Source: ACL

All of SIA’s existing slots and new slot approvals at Manchester are for 253-seat Airbus A350s, which means the carrier would use its Airbus A350 Long Haul variant to operate any services.

Crucially, they are not for cargo services, something we initially considered (SIA has some additional slots at Heathrow it uses for cargo flights).

Mondays and Thursdays are the days of the week that currently don’t see a non-stop Manchester – Singapore flight in the summer 2025 schedule, and we would hazard a guess that new slots on those days may be used to expand the currently-planned five-times-weekly SQ301/302 service to daily operation next summer.

However, even if that were the case that still leaves:

• 1 additional arrival and departure on Tuesdays
• 2 additional arrivals and departures on Wednesdays
• 1 additional arrival and departure on Fridays
• 2 additional arrivals and departures on Saturdays
• 2 additional arrivals and departures on Sundays

If these slots were utilised, it would mean three Singapore Airlines Airbus A350 Long Haul aircraft would land at and depart from Manchester on certain days of the week.

Here’s how SIA’s current confirmed Manchester schedule looks for the summer 2025 season, once the Houston route has been discontinued.

Singapore Manchester
1 Apr 2025 – 25 Oct 2025

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ302 A350 LH
SIN 02:10		MAN 08:55
Duration: 13:45

* Next day

Manchester Singapore
1 Apr 2025 – 25 Oct 2025

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ301 A350 LH
MAN 11:15		SIN 07:40*
Duration: 13:25

* Next day

Is another “fifth freedom” route on the cards?

Singapore Airlines has always operated “fifth freedom” routes to and from Manchester since it started operating there in the 1980s.

That’s because over the years the city was served from Singapore via other places on the network, including Bombay, Brussels, Dubai, Athens, Zurich and Munich.

The Singapore – Manchester route upgraded to non-stop in 2016, but Manchester was then used as an intermediate point on the carrier’s Houston service, so another “fifth freedom” route has in fact remained part of the service ever since.

Given the similarity of the newly-approved arrival and departure times to the carrier’s existing Singapore flights, an additional frequency simply to and from the Lion City doesn’t seem likely.

The airline would surely add an overnight departure from Manchester to capture additional connection opportunities if that were the case, rather than have two (or three) flights leaving at the same time.

These additional slots could therefore mean the airline has another city in mind to tag on to its Manchester services, once the Houston route ends, and at an ever larger scale.

The airline may not wish to sacrifice its UK-US “fifth freedom” traffic rights, which only exist via the current Manchester – Houston service, so perhaps a different city in North America is in its sights? It’s all guesswork until something is confirmed.

Don’t get too excited

While we’d love to see another destination for Singapore Airlines from Manchester, and many of our readers probably would too, don’t get too excited about this prospect just yet.

It’s important to note that airlines do sometimes apply for slots they don’t necessarily intend to use, for various reasons.

This could easily be the case for SIA’s Manchester plans, though we’d be happy to see the airline hike to at least daily service on the Singapore – Manchester route.

Gatwick is going strong for SIA

Singapore Airlines launched its non-stop flights to and from London’s second airport Gatwick in late June this year, with the five-times-weekly service set to upgrade to daily from late March 2025.

“We launched our Gatwick services with five services a week, and they are doing very well. That is why we are increasing the frequency.”

Lee Lik Hsin, CCO and EVP Commercial, Singapore Airlines
November 2024 Analyst Briefing

The carrier actually wanted daily flights from the get-go, per its original slot application, but was only offered the current more limited frequency initially.

Nonetheless SIA has now secured daily slots, which it will exercise from the start of the summer 2025 season.

SIA certainly has little to worry about regarding load factors at Gatwick, with occupancy consistently exceeding 90% on its flights. In September 2024 – the most recent month for which data is available – this figure climbed to an impressive 97.2%.

London Gatwick Route Performance
Month	Seat Capacity^	Seats Occupied*	Load Factor
Jun ’24	3,542	3,286	92.8%
Jul ’24	11,132	10,099	90.7%
Aug ’24	11,132	9,992	89.8%
Sep ’24	10,626	10,324	97.2%

^ Source: GDS schedule
* Source: UK CAA Data

With additional slots at London Heathrow almost impossible to come by (SIA tried and failed last year) and Gatwick slots also proving difficult to secure, the airline may now see Manchester as its next-best prospect for increasing capacity in the UK market.

Will Singapore Airlines triple its planned passenger flights at Manchester from April 2025?

Well, all we know is that the airline can if it wants to, following this slot application and approval.

Whether that happens, and which routes – besides Singapore – might be added to SIA’s Manchester network, remains to be seen. Airlines do obtain slot approvals that they don’t then go on to use, either immediately or ever, so there’s no guarantees anything will change until a formal announcement is made.

What do you make of SIA’s additional Manchester slot approvals, and where would you like to see them fly from there? Let us know in the comments section below.

(Cover Photo: Bradley Caslin / Shutterstock)