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SIA announces first A350ULR route to Newark
June 1st 2018
Singapore Airlines (SIA) on Wednesday announced its first A350-900 ultra-long-range (ULR) route. Read More » The Singaporean flag carrier will launch the thrice-weekly ULR between its Changi Airport hub and Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on October 11. The service will go daily from October 18, following the delivery of a second ULR to the airline.
Singapore-Newark will be SIA’s longest route at approximately 9,000nm (16,700km). The return flight is booked at 18:45hrs.
SIA, a Star Alliance member, used to fly to Newark until 2013, but terminated the route coinciding with the retirement of its fuel-guzzling A340-500 fleet.
SIA is configuring the A350ULR in a high-premium configuration, seating 67 passengers in business class and 94 in premium economy class. There will be no standard economy class cabin on the ULRs.
SIA has seven ULRs on order. The airline is the only customer for the type to date. The carrier already operates 21 A350-900s, with another 39 on order, excluding the seven ULRs.
The first ULR is scheduled for delivery to SIA in September and the remaining six will follow in quick succession before the end of the year.
SIA said it would announce another ULR route, from Singapore to Los Angeles, shortly.
“Singapore Airlines has always taken pride in pushing the boundaries to provide the best possible travel convenience for our customers, and we are pleased to be leading the way with these new non-stop flights using the latest-technology, ultra-long-range Airbus A350-900ULR,” said SIA CEO, Goh Choon Phong. “The flights will offer our customers the fastest way to travel between the two cities - in great comfort, together with Singapore Airlines’ legendary service - and will help boost connectivity to and through the Singapore hub,” he added.
For the time being, SIA’s only nonstop service to U.S. is a daily Singapore-San Francisco A350-900 flight. The airline also operates a second daily rotation to San Francisco, via Hong Kong on a B777-300ER. The airline also flies double daily to Los Angeles with the -300ER, via Seoul and Tokyo, respectively. SIA also serves New York’s JFK daily with an A380 via Frankfurt and the airline flies an A350-900 five times a week between Singapore, Manchester and Houston.
It remains unclear at this stage if SIA will cancel one of the Los Angeles triangular routes once it mounts nonstop Singapore-Los Angeles flights with the ULR.
