Singapore Airlines (SIA) announces the launch of non-stop flights between Singapore and Los Angeles in November. The route will be flown by the new Airbus A350-900ULR (ultra-long-range) aircraft. The airline will also increase frequency on the Singapore – San Francisco route to 10 times per week from current daily. With these services and the non-stop Singapore – New York route which will be the longest flight in the world, the carrier based in the city state of Singapore will have 27 weekly non-stop services to the USA by the end of 2018.
The airline will start flights the worlds longest flight between Singapore & New York on 11thOctober 2018 with thrice a week flights which will scale up to daily starting 18th October. SIA is the first customer of the A350-900ULR and has seven aircraft on firm order. The airline last operated this flight in 2013 with the A340-500 which was christened as Leadership by the airline. SIA has since stopped naming their fleet. The A350-900ULR will be configured in two class layout of 67 Business Class seats and 94 premium economy class seats.
The longest flight will cover a distance of 16,700 kms in 18hours and 45 minutes. The first of the seven aircraft will be delivered in September and the order will be completed by December. The airline has ordered 67 A350XWB. Singapore Airlines currently serves New York JFK, daily via Frankfurt. Other US destinations include Houston (five times weekly via Manchester), Los Angeles (daily via Seoul and daily via Tokyo), and San Francisco (daily non-stop from Singapore as well as daily via Hong Kong).
The flights to Los Angeles will commence on 2nd November 2018 with thrice a week flights and quickly convert to Daily operations from 9th November. Services will be increased starting 7th December by three a week to take the total to 10 flights a week between Singapore and Los Angeles. The airline will stop serving Los Angeles via Seoul from end of November without any change in frequency on the Singapore – Seoul route. However, the airline will continue to service Los Angeles one stop via Tokyo as a Daily service.
SIA will also be increasing frequency on the existing Singapore-San Francisco route with three more weekly flights, with effect from 28 November 2018. The three additional services will operate as SQ34, departing every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday to San Francisco and will complement existing daily SQ32 non-stop services. Together with SIA’s current daily one-stop service to San Francisco via Hong Kong, San Francisco will also be served 17 times per week.
Singapore Airlines currently operates 40 flights per week to the US cities of Houston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. With the new flights, total US frequency will increase to 53 per week by December.
SIA will compete directly with United which started non-stop operations with induction of B787-9 Dreamliner
NetworkThoughts 
Very interesting to see Singapore Airlines return to this long haul route. Will they sustain if oil goes up or will it be like their experiment with the A340-500
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