The Airbus A330-300 fleet operates regional flights from Singapore – up to around eight hours flight time. It’s nice and simple because all of these aircraft belong to the -300 series, and all are fitted with only one configuration – 30 of the older 2009 Regional Business Class seats in a 2-2-2 layout, and 255 economy seats in a 2-4-2 layout.
| Airbus A330 | ||
| 30 J (2009 RJ) 255 Y (2006 Y) 285 Total |
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| A330 aircraft in service at 31st July 2021: 2 | ||
| 9V-SSH | 9V-SSI | |
The aircraft operates to many of the obvious regional destinations like Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Yangon, Jakarta and Hanoi, but where you have to be careful with the A330 is that you’ll also see it operating longer flights too, for example Singapore to Osaka.
Currently the A330s are being returned to their leasing companies and replaced with the Boeing 787-10 and Airbus A350-900 Regional featuring newer Business Class seats. In future these will take over all SIA’s A330 flights, probably by the end of 2020.
A330 Business Class
The reason to be cautious on longer flights is that SIA A330s are fitted with their 2009 regional business class product – a 2-2-2 configuration with 172-degree recline (almost flat, but not quite!). That gives rise to three main concerns – aisle access, privacy, and perhaps most importantly, sleeping.
For a daytime flight it’s actually quite acceptable, especially when travelling as a couple. Overnight it’s one to avoid due to the angled bed (good enough for a daytime snooze in our opinion, but not conducive to a good night’s sleep).
Travelling solo, these seats aren’t great for privacy. There is a reasonably-sized privacy divider between each seat pair, but it doesn’t afford you the seclusion of the newest Business Class seats in the fleet.
(Photo: Singapore Airlines)
Best Seats
There are two toilets in this cabin at the rear, behind seats 16 A&C and 16 H&K. Two toilets for 30 passengers (and two pilots) is quite a nice ratio for business class, but you can avoid some of the foot traffic by choosing a seat further forward in this cabin.
Row 11 (which is always the furthest forward Business Class row in all SIA aircraft) benefits from some additional legroom, though beware the infant bassinets are also at this row so there is a possibility of disturbance, and the IFE screens are mounted on the bulkhead wall in front of you as there is no seat in front. We usu