Singapore Preps All-Biz Service

Singapore Airlines plans to launch all-business-class nonstop transpacific service between Newark and Singapore in mid-May on five reconfigured planes and add a Singapore-Los Angeles route in September.

The flights would represent the industry's first all-business-class transpacific service, and would replace all nonstop two-class service between the locations. Travelers seeking economy class service between Singapore and Newark or Los Angeles will be restricted to one-stop flights.

Singapore Airlines said it would phase in the new service in the middle of May, and begin daily service between Newark and Singapore by the end of June.

Singapore will reconfigure five Airbus A340-500 planes, currently featuring 181 seats in two service classes, to include 100 30-inch wide, lie-flat business class seats identical to those offered on its Airbus A380 and Boeing 777-300 flights, in the same 1-2-1 configuration.

Singapore spokesperson James Boyd said the total cost of a roundtrip all-business-class Newark-Singapore flight would be just shy of $8,200, inclusive of all taxes and fees, which is about 5 percent higher than the current nonstop business fare. All-business-class Los Angeles-Singapore service would cost slightly less, he said.

According to Singapore's most recent operating data, the carrier's January load factors to the Americas slipped by slightly more than 2 percentage points to about 82 percent from the same period in 2007. However, the carrier attested to strong demand for premium services, which triggered the expansion of transpacific premium seats.

"The peak demand for the non-stop flights is from our business class customers, and this change will expand business class capacity from 64 to 100 seats on each flight," said Singapore executive vice president of marketing and regions Huang Cheng Eng in a statement.

Singapore launched nonstop two-class Newark-Singapore and Los Angeles-Singapore service on the long-haul A340-500 in 2004. Boyd said the carrier initially charged a 3 percent to 5 percent premium above one-stop business class fares on those flights, eventually increasing that premium to 7 percent and then 15 percent.

"Demand outstripped supply," Boyd said of the two-class flights' 64 business-class seats. "We had a waiting list almost every day."

The all-business-class service will offer 15-inch personal entertainment screens, up from the current 10 inches, and 1,000 on-demand entertainment options, up from 450.

Aviation consultant Robert Mann, president of Port Washington, N.Y.-based R.W. Mann & Co., said the development of more airplanes that can fly long distances without stopping to refuel—particularly Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, now expected in 2009—likely will lead to further nonstop long-haul business-class offerings. Singapore's move "leverages the ultra long-haul capability of the plane," he said. "We will see this be routine, especially as the 787 comes in."

BTN editor Jay Boehmer contributed to this report.