By the end of next month Singapore Airlines will have restored service to all of the European destinations it plans to fly to. The Singapore flag carrier will serve 15 destinations, not planning to return to Stockholm or Dusseldorf and cancelling planned service to Brussels.
It’s adding a new flight, though, starting to serve travelers within Europe. The carrier will fly Singapore to Copenhagen, and then Copenhagen to Rome, as reported by Mainly Miles. But this won’t just be a way of connecting passengers one-stop between Italy and Singapore. It’s going to be selling tickets to people wanting to travel between Rome and Copenhagen, a so-called “fifth-freedom route.”
That means instead of experiencing typical limited service and uncomfortable seating on the 2 hour 20 minute journey between Italy and Denmark, passengers will experience Singapore Airlines long haul seats – flat beds in business class, and more legroom and arguably the world’s best seats in economy.
Singapore Airlines A350 Economy Seat
This new three day a week Airbus A350 service will operate as follows:
- Copenhagen – Rome, 8:15 a.m. – 10:35 a.m., Singapore Airlines SQ352 (Tue/Fri/Sun)
- Rome – Copenhagen, 8:35 a.m. – 11:00 a.m., Singapore Airlines SQ351 (Mon/Wed/Sat)
The aircraft spends 22 hours on the ground in Rome, but that’s less than the 30 hours it had been spending on the ground in Copenhagen without this extension of service.
Award travel using Singapore Airlines Krisflyer miles runs 10,000 miles each way in economy; 17,000 miles in premium economy, and 30,500 miles in business class, plus about $27 in taxes and fees regardless of cabin. Cash fares start at around $89 each way in coach, generally undercutting pricing by fellow Star Alliance carrier Scandinavian on the route.
These flights are currently available through the end of October, when Singapore anticipates replacing them with non-stop Rome – Singapore service.
My first flight on SQ was FRA-ZRH long ago and in coach. I remember how impressed I was by the service on the very short flight.
We can only dream about such flights being offered in the U.S. Could you imagine if there were a Singapore flight from JFK to SFO or LAX? United and American would have to either up their game or abandon those routes.
Of course, UAL and AAL, along with their unions and the sycophant politicians that they own will make sure we never have that choice….
@GS Guy
Cabotage basically makes this impossible. Closest we got was JFK – YVR on Cathay Pacific while that lasted.
GS Guy nailed it. We need competition. Should have been a condition of the $54 billion gift from Congress.
@rjb One way to think about it is that the domestic carriers needed the $54B gift without international competition. Let that competition in and the taxpayers will end up gifting them $100B+.
The airline industry is ass-backwards on numerous fronts.
@Jimmy
OR the loser domestic airlines go out of business and are replaced by more efficient airlines that actually provide good service and aren’t constantly badgering govt. for protection and &protection money. Of course, there’s no job for Sara Nelson and her surly minions in that scenario.
Good news for me, as I’ll try to be a heavy user of these CPH-FCO/FCO-CPH flights on regular paid fares and on mileage tickets.
That’s great! Let’s get SQ to operate some domestic U.S. flights.
If Sara Nelson is still there, we can only get 28″ or even 27″ American Oasis!!!
I would have thought it would be Singapore-Rome-Copenhagen. Or is this a great circle type situation where Copenhagen is on the way to Rome?