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All-Business-Class Flights to Singapore May Become a Thing of the Past

Where: Singapore
April 3, 2012 at 10:19 AM | by | Comments (0)

The allure and glamor of flying between 18 and 19 hours, non-stop, in a super wide business class seat, surrounded by, and nothing but, other plush business class seats may be a story we tell our grandchildren. Singapore Airlines has been considering reverting their all-premium aircraft back to a 2-class cabin with premium-economy class seating.

The sky-rocketing cost of jet-fuel, a turbulent airline industry and low load factors are causing the airline to toss around the idea of adding seats to pack in the passengers a bit more and, ultimately, increase revenue.

With a similar history as UK's, OpenSkies, the flight originally launched with 2-cabin, premium service flights to both the East Coast and West Coast from Singapore. In 2008, SIA decided to eliminate the premium economy cabin and roll the dice on all-premium seating with only 98 seats.

Even with the re-introduction of a 2-3-2 premium economy cabin, the capacity of the Airbus A340-500 is still far from bursting at the seams. And since there'll be all that excess area, the airline is considering creating a space in the rear of the plane acting as an "viewing" area. Since the plane needs to fly a bit lighter than usual, this area can mimic the stand-up lounges offered on our legacy carriers of yesteryear. Or—Singapore could go the Korean Air route and install a mini duty-free shop up in there.

While there are no definite plans just yet, Singapore Airlines has been rethinking strategies to remain on top of the world industry. We cannot fault a choice to add some cheaper seats, but in the meantime there's still the other way around the world, on a Singapore A380.

[Photo: Singapore Airlines]

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