What’s with all this? Every other airline is now competing to win the coveted World’s Longest Flight title.
Singapore Airlines will soon snatch the title away from Qantas when it launches its’ Singapore-Newark flight come October XX.
This flight will take 18 hours 45 minutes and I am so glad to hear that there will be no Economy seats on this flight because I cannot imagine being crammed in a cattle seat for that long a time. SQ will be using their brand spanking new A350-900LR for this route with their new Business Class product and Premium Economy seats. For a lack of a better term, they have “copied” Qantas’ innovative idea of partnering with a nutritionist to come up with a healthy menu for this ultra long range flight. I am glad to say that Qantas’ probably has a better menu because their partner, University of Sydney, actually has research based evidence of their own!
This is not the first time SQ has introduced non-stop flights to New York, they did and failed several years ago. Why again? They have argued that newer planes are more cost effective so they have a better chance of succeeding. Let’s wait and see because I am actually quite sceptical that an all-premium long haul flight from Singapore could work because the greatest growth in the area is actually the Low Cost Carriers!
Why Newark and not JKF? We all know that JFK hands-down has better connectivity to downtown Manhattan (think train and taxis) and anywhere else in the US via all the other major airlines. Unless, they were simply relying on the fact that Newark is their fellow Star Alliance United’s hub. With an all premium class plane load, wouldn’t that generally translate to a more corporate clientele requiring better connectivity?
Singapore Airlines might be the world’s best airline but is far from being the most profitable. My suspicion is that this flight is more of an egoistic decision rather than a commercial one. I rest my case.
