Singapore Airlines will resume using the Airbus A380 to Tokyo Narita. The double-decker was first used on the 3,324-mile (5,349 km) airport pair in 2008, making it among the world’s initial A380 routes. It was last deployed in early 2020, just before everything changed. The carrier has 12 A380s, of which 10 are active when writing.
The A380 is coming back
Singapore Airlines will return the 471-seat, four-class A380 to Japan on Sunday, October 29th. That is the day airlines in the Northern Hemisphere switch to winter schedules. With a daily service, it will operate as follows, with all times local:
- Singapore to Tokyo Narita: SQ638, 23:55-07:30+1 (6h 35m block time)
- Tokyo Narita to Singapore: SQ637, 10:00-16:55 (7h 55m)
Five daily Tokyo flights
The quadjet replaces the previously scheduled 787-10. The Star Alliance carrier has double daily Narita flights, the other still using the 777-300ER (SQ12/SQ11), which continues to/from Los Angeles.
Singapore Airlines also has triple daily Haneda services, for five daily Tokyo flights. Examining the schedule for the first week of November shows that Tokyo is the carrier’s joint third most-served city. It falls behind Kuala Lumpur (47 weekly) and Bali-Denpasar and Jakarta (each 42 weekly). The Japanese capital has as many flights as Bangkok and Penang.
Based on the first week of November, its Tokyo passenger operation is as follows, organized by departure time from each city. * Signifies the flight is to/from Los Angeles.
- Singapore to Tokyo: 08:05 to Haneda (A350-900), 09:20 to Narita (777-300ER*), 14:05 to Haneda (A350-900), 22:45 to Haneda (777-300ER), 23:55 to Narita (A380)
- Tokyo to Singapore: 08:50 from Haneda (777-300ER), 10:00 from Narita (A380), 16:40 from Haneda (A350-900), 18:40 from Narita (777-300ER*), 22:55 from Haneda (A350-900)
Eight A380 destinations this winter
When writing on July 3rd and subject to change, Singapore Airlines anticipates eight A380 routes this coming northern winter. These include Auckland, which will see the type on November 22nd, a day after Melbourne stops doing so. The network is shown below:
- London Heathrow: double daily A380
- Sydney: double daily
- Mumbai: daily
- Delhi: daily
- Hong Kong: daily
- Tokyo Narita: daily (resumes October 29th)
- Auckland: daily (resumes November 22nd)
- Melbourne: daily (ends November 21st)
Nine daily A380 winter flights
Singapore Airlines has nine daily A380 flights from its Changi hub. As a snapshot, these are all due to leave on Wednesday, November 22nd:
- 00:45: Sydney
- 09:00: London Heathrow
- 09:55: Hong Kong
- 16:25: Delhi
- 18:45: Mumbai
- 20:40: Sydney
- 22:25: Auckland
- 23:45: London Heathrow
- 23:55: Tokyo Narita
Comparing northern winter 2023 to winter 2019 shows that Singapore Airlines will not deploy the A380 to Beijing, Frankfurt, New York JFK (via Frankfurt), Shanghai Pudong, Osaka, or Zurich. Again subject to change, only Shanghai is scheduled to return in northern summer 2024.
Source : Simple Flying
