Airline News
Airbus confirms SIA premium A350LR
August 24th 2015
Just months after Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) chief, Goh Choon Phong, revealed his plans to re-launch non-stop flights to the U.S., Airbus has confirmed it is working with the carrier to develop a long-range variant of the A350-900 by 2018. Read More »
Speaking to Bloomberg, Kiran Rao, Airbus’ executive vice president for strategy and marketing, said changes to the A350’s cabin layout would reduce its weight, extending the range of the aircraft and allowing SIA to fly direct between Singapore and New York while burning 25% less fuel than when it operated the A340-500 on the route. The added range would result in a reduction of the A350’s maximum payload, which is currently listed by Airbus as 314 passengers in a three-class configuration.
However, Rao revealed SIA was studying different cabin layouts. “I can’t go into details on the type of layouts they are considering, but it would be a premium service,” said the Airbus executive. At press time, SIA had 63 confirmed orders for the A350. It remains to be seen how many of those will be converted to orders for the LR-variant.
Does the SIA/Airbus announcement mean ultra-long and thin is in again? Last week, Emirates Airline said it would launch the world’s longest route (8,588 miles) on February 1, 2016, with a daily B777-200LR service linking its Dubai hub with Panama City. The Singapore-New York (JFK) route is 9,537 miles long.
