[ad_1]
SIA’s Frankfurt route will receive the carrier’s flagship Airbus A380 again next summer, but the less-promoted news is that popular Tokyo and Auckland flights will lose their superjumbo service from the exact same day.
This week Singapore Airlines has revealed a new network addition for its flagship Airbus A380, with the German city of Frankfurt seeing its superjumbo service restored from the start of the northern summer 2024 season, following a 10-month hiatus.
Back in mid-May 2023 the carrier axed A380 service on its Singapore – Frankfurt – New York route, in favour of smaller Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, quite the disappointment for those who had already snagged Suites bookings including award redemptions for this current summer season.
It’s therefore great to report a return for the type on the Frankfurt route, though it’s the terminator flight that will pick up the A380, which still won’t return to its former transatlantic jaunt across to JFK.
Unfortunately there’s bad news for other cities on SIA’s A380 network, with both Tokyo and Auckland giving way for the Frankfurt reinstatement from March next year.
Frankfurt’s reinstated A380 service
From the start of the northern summer 2024 season, Singapore Airlines will upgauge its daily Singapore – Frankfurt – Singapore service SQ326/325 from the Airbus A350 Long Haul to the Airbus A380, through to at least the end of October 2024.
Here’s how the carrier’s Frankfurt schedule will then look, including SQ25/26 Boeing 777-300ER service, which continues to operate and from New York and previously saw A380 operation.
SIA
Singapore – Frankfurt – Singapore
31 Mar 2024
26 Oct 2024
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
 |
SQ326 A380 |
||||||||
| SIN 10:55 |
FRA 17:30 |
||||||||
|
SQ26 777-300ER |
||||||||
| SIN 23:55 |
FRA 07:20* |
||||||||
|
SQ25 777-300ER |
||||||||
| FRA 12:30 |
SIN 06:50* |
||||||||
|
SQ325 A380 |
||||||||
| FRA 22:00 |
SIN 16:25* |
||||||||
* Next day
This service provides a daytime SIA A380 flight from Singapore to Frankfurt, for the first time.
On the return sector it’s the overnight SQ325 service that picks up the A380, a flight with a special place in our hearts as we travelled in First Class on that very timing from Frankfurt to Singapore on the inaugural VTL flight, in September 2021.
This marks the second post-COVID return of the airline’s superjumbo to continental Europe, with the A380 first returning to the Singapore – Frankfurt New York route in March 2022, only for the airline to downgrade the service to the Boeing 777-300ER three months ago, in May 2023.
A380 cabin products
This A380 service will mean a return to Germany for SIA’s latest Airbus A380 cabin products once again, with the last service for these cabins on this route back in May 2023.
2017 Suites
The biggest selling point of the newly configured A380s is the latest Suites cabin, located on the forward upper deck with a capacity of just six, three either side of a central aisle.
Two of the Suite pairs (1A/2A and 1F/2F) can combine to form a double suite if you are travelling with someone else.
You can read our review of the double suite on a flight from Singapore to Hong Kong in 2018 below.
Although Singapore Airlines stopped short of installing showers in the latest A380 fit, there are two large washrooms at the front of the cabin, one of which is so big it has its own separate vanity area.
We also enjoyed the ‘A380 Restaurant@Changi’ experience on board the new Suites cabin back in October 2020 – see our review here.
Suite selection
If you’re flying on the Frankfurt route from late March 2024 on the Airbus A380 (SQ326/325) the Suite seat map will now very happily look like this:
The Singapore Airlines site sadly doesn’t tell the full story. This to-scale representation from the excellent aeroLOPA site uses official information to accurately portray the layout, and highlights that all six Suites in this cabin sure aren’t created equal.
Row 1 suites boast 54 square feet of floorspace, compared to 43 square feet in Row 2 and just 35 square feet in Row 3.
Couples will clearly want to go for the two double suite options at 1A/2A or 1F/2F. Here the dividing screen between the suites retracts and allows for a double bed setup.
Suites 3A and 3F are standalone options, lacking the ability to combine with adjacent suites. They also have the smallest footprint and are close to the galley, potentially leading to some light and noise disturbance.
While we don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun by blocking the double suites, as solo travellers we would still choose row 1 or row 2 for not only a larger suite (row 3 suites are the smallest), but less potential disturbance.
2017 Business Class
Another great advantage of the new Singapore Airlines A380 cabins is the excellent Business Class product, our personal favourite in the fleet, with 78 of these seats occupying the rest of the upper deck in a 1-2-1 layout.
There’s the option at the middle seat pairs to retract the divider for couples travelling together, who also benefit from a ‘double bed’ at the three bulkhead positions – Rows 11, 91 and 96.
It’s certainly great to see this product offered to and from mainland Europe once again for at least the summer 2024 season.
Frankfurt award redemptions
These are the KrisFlyer miles needed for the Singapore – Frankfurt route.
| KrisFlyer Redemption (one-way) Singapore ⇄ Frankfurt |
||
| Class | Saver | Advantage |
| Economy | 42,000 | 70,000 |
| Premium Economy | 71,000 | n/a |
| Business | 103,500 | 123,000 |
| First / Suites | 141,000 | 225,500 |
As you might expect, Saver awards in Suites are nearly impossible to come by on this route, with the Advantage pricing of 225,500 miles each way currently the norm.
Business Class, however, is a different story. Here there are plenty of opportunities to redeem at the saver rate of 103,500 miles one-way, thanks to the larger 78 seat cabin on the A380, a 63% capacity hike compared to the 777-300ER.
That’s especially the case 355 days before departure, when SIA first opens award seats for booking and the airline seems to be loading four Saver Business Class awards on each flight. This is therefore a great time to jump on award space – see our article for full details.
The bad news: Tokyo and Auckland lose the A380
Normally we’d be thrilled to report on a new (or at least reinstated) Singapore Airlines A380 route, but there’s more to the story here.
Tokyo and Auckland, both routes picking up the A380 for the upcoming winter season from late October 2023, will unfortunately both lose A380 service the same day that Frankfurt gains it, in late March 2024.
- The airline’s SQ638/637 Tokyo Narita service, operated by the A380 from 29th October 2023, will revert to two-class Boeing 787-10 operation from 31st March 2024.
- The airline’s SQ285/286 Auckland service, operated by the A380 from 22nd November 2023, will revert to three class Airbus A350 Long Haul operation from 31st March 2024.
That’s terrible news for many of our Japan-loving readers, who had been longing for the A380 to return to the country and rejoiced in the news that it would finally do so this year.
It also begs the question whether the Frankfurt A380 allocation itself is set to be a seasonal addition.
For example, SIA is currently flying its A380s to Melbourne between May and November 2023, but there’s no sign of that one returning at all once the final service operates on 21st November 2023, even in the northern summer 2024 season.
It certainly looks like we can expect to see seasonal route variations for the airline’s 12-strong A380 fleet going forward.
Shanghai shuffles
Once Frankfurt A380 flights kick off in the summer 2024 season, Singapore Airlines is also switching around its Airbus A380 operation on the Shanghai route to a completely different timing.
- Until 30th March 2024
SQ830/833 - From 31st March 2024
SQ826/827
This changes Shanghai A380 operation to a 1.15am departure from Changi, touching down at 6.35am, with an 8.05am departure in the opposite direction, landing back in Singapore at 1.25pm.
If you’re booked on SQ830/833 after 31st March 2024, do check the seat map on your booking, especially in Suites / First Class. A Boeing 777-300ER will be taking over that service, which has a very nice First Class cabin but is no match for Suites.
A380 summer 2024 schedule
We recently summarised SIA’s Airbus A380 schedules through to the end of the winter 2023/24 season in later March 2024, with the carrier maintaining eight cities on the network during that period.
For the summer 2024 season the airline is offering only a seven-strong network at the time of writing, including these new Frankfurt services.
Singapore Airlines A380 Flights
| Current Network NS23 season |
||
| Flight | Dates (2023) |
Days |
| Delhi SQ406/403 |
Now – 27 Oct | Daily |
| Hong Kong SQ892/893 |
Now – 28 Oct |
Daily |
| London SQ308/319 |
Now – 28 Oct | Daily |
| London SQ322/317 |
Now – 28 Oct | Daily |
| Melbourne SQ237/228 |
Now – 21 Nov (ending) |
Daily |
| Mumbai SQ424/423 |
1 Sep – 28 Oct |
Daily |
| Shanghai SQ830/833 |
Now – 28 Oct (suspended) |
Daily |
| Sydney SQ231/222 |
Now – 28 Oct | Daily |
| Sydney SQ221/232 |
Now – 28 Oct | Daily |
| Future Network NW23/24 season |
||
| Flight | Dates (2023/24) |
Days |
| Auckland SQ285/286 |
22 Nov – 31 Mar |
Daily |
| Delhi SQ406/403 |
30 Oct – 30 Mar |
Daily |
| Hong Kong SQ892/893 |
29 Oct – 30 Mar |
Daily |
| London SQ308/319 |
29 Oct – 30 Mar |
Daily |
| London SQ322/317 |
29 Oct – 30 Mar |
Daily |
| Mumbai SQ424/423 |
29 Oct – 30 Mar | Daily |
| Shanghai SQ830/833 |
4 Jan – 30 Mar (reinstated) |
Daily |
| Sydney SQ231/222 |
29 Oct – 30 Mar | Daily |
| Sydney SQ221/232 |
29 Oct – 30 Mar | Daily |
| Future Network S24 season |
||
| Flight | Dates (2024) |
Days |
| Delhi SQ406/403 |
31 Mar – 26 Oct |
Daily |
 FrankfurtSQ326/325 |
31 Mar – 26 Oct |
Daily |
| Hong Kong SQ892/893 |
31 Mar – 26 Oct | Daily |
| London SQ308/319 |
31 Mar – 26 Oct | Daily |
| London SQ322/317 |
31 Mar – 26 Oct | Daily |
| Mumbai SQ424/423 |
31 Mar – 26 Oct | Daily |
| Shanghai SQ826/827 |
31 Mar – 26 Oct (new flight timing) |
Daily |
| Sydney SQ231/222 |
31 Mar – 26 Oct | Daily |
| Sydney SQ221/232 |
31 Mar – 26 Oct | Daily |
With a 12th and final aircraft in the fleet due to have its refit completed in the coming months, this does leave significant scope for more A380 route announcements for the summer 2024 season, depending on any planned maintenance downtime.
Watch this space for further A380 route announcements as we receive them.
Good news for SIA’s Frankfurt route next summer, which will see Airbus A380 service returning on a daily basis in the form of the SQ326/325 flights, including an upgrade to six Suites from the 777-300ER’s four First Class seats.
Plentiful award space is available in Business Class, especially at the T-355 days mark, but in Suites it’s mostly Advantage rates on offer for the time being.
Unfortunately the airline’s Tokyo and Auckland routes will lose A380 service just as Frankfurt gets its upgrade, reverting to smaller aircraft for the northern summer season. Let’s hope we’ll see these cities back on the superjumbo’s roster in future.
(Cover Photo: Aero Icarus)
[ad_2]
Source link