Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary SilkAir will be making capacity changes and introducing a new route to their networks.
From 27 Apr 2019, Singapore Airlines will be adding a third daily flight to Osaka. This move is to better match capacity to demand, as more passengers seek travel to the city within the second largest metropolitan area in Japan.
The airline will be operating the A330-300 aircraft for this third daily fight, adding about 2000 seats per week in each direction. Neither the outbound flight operating as SQ620 nor the returning flight SQ621 are overnight flights, which is probably why this particular aircraft was chosen. We all know that the A330-300 features only inclined lie-flat seats in a 2-2-2 configuration in Business Class, which isn’t the best that Singapore Airlines can offer. In fact, by the time the third daily flight commences, you can get far better value for your money or miles if you pick any one of the other two daily flights operated by the B787-10, which features all aisle access Business Class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration.
It seems that travel to North Asia is picking up, as SilkAir will be introducing non-stop flights to Busan from 1 May 2019.
These flights will be operating on a four times per week basis, using the B737 MAX 8 aircraft.
While this aircraft features the latest Business Class product in SilkAir, it is still quite a distance to fly in a leather armchair. That being said, plans have already been announced to retrofit the B737 MAX 8 aircraft with lie flat Business Class seats from May 2020, ahead of the merger between Singapore Airlines and SilkAir. By then, the B737 MAX 8 aircraft will offer a more comfortable ride to destinations of up to 7 hours from Singapore, when they join the Singapore Airlines fleet proper.