Saturday, May 21, 2011

Singapore Airlines A380's to have fewer seats

Singapore Airlines is to reduce the seating density on its remaining Airbus A380s by 13%, slashing the economy-class cabin in favour of more business-class accommodation.


The airline is to fit just 409 seats in the eight outstanding A380s which it has on order.


Singapore Airlines' in-service fleet of 11 A380s are configured with 471 seats. These comprise 12 first-class and 60 business-class seats, plus an economy cabin seating 399.


But a spokesman for SIA confirms that while the 12 first-class suites will stay, the business-class seating will be increased to 86 in the eight aircraft yet to be delivered.


The economy-class seating will be cut back to 311 seats.


SIA has not detailed the precise layout of the aircraft but its current 471-seat A380s have 311 economy seats on the lower deck, which could indicate that the 88 upper-deck economy seats will be replaced by 26 business-class seats - giving the A380 an all-business upper deck.


This reconfiguration will also mean SIA will operate one of the lowest-density A380s in the global fleet. Only Korean Air has fewer seats, having declared a 407-seat layout for its A380s, the first of which will be handed over on 24 May.

(David Kaminski-Morrow - Air Transport Intelligence News)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is absolutely true - we booked and reserved economy seats on the upper deck for 01 Oct 2011 from Singapore to London. however days before the flight we noticed these had been cancelled.

A statement from SIA read "From 01 Oct 2011 we will be operating our newly configured A380 where we will have economy class only available on the main deck".

Its a shame as we booked months in advance in order to secure 1/2 decent economy seats.