SIA corporate, premium advantage with Newark nonstop return

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has confirmed plans for resuming nonstop flights to Newark and Los Angeles later this year using low density two class A350-900ULRs with a premium-focused product. The Newark flight alone, which will be relaunched in Oct-2018, will generate a 22% increase in SIA's business class capacity to the US and a staggering 58% increase in premium economy capacity.

SIA operated nonstop flights from Singapore to New York Newark from May-2004 to Nov-2013, using A340-500s. These flights initially featured 117 premium economy and 64 business class seats, but in 2008 SIA transitioned its A340 fleet to an all-business configuration with 100 seats. The retrofit failed to improve the route's profitability significantly as an increase in fuel prices made it impossible to break even, despite relatively decent load factors and yields.

SIA unveiled plans to resume nonstop flights to New York and Los Angeles in late 2015, when it placed an order for seven A350-900ULRs. It announced on 30-May-2018 that nonstop flights to the New York market would resume on 11-Oct-2018, and that it will configure the new A350-900ULR fleet with only 161 seats, composed of 67 business class seats and 94 premium economy seats.