Sunday, October 29, 2017

United Airlines Launches LAX - Singapore Nonstop Service

United Airlines has launched flights from its Los Angeles hub to Singapore – a 14,000km journey that takes 17 hours, 55 minutes on the outbound leg and 15 hours, 15 minutes on the way back.

The once-daily route is operated as "UA37" departing at 21:25 pst utilizing a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner configured with 252 seats in a three-class layout (116 in Economy, 88 in Economy Plus and 48 in Business). The inaugural service took off on 27th October.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) stopped nonstop trans-pacific flights to Los Angeles in 2013 after deciding to retire its four-engine Airbus A340-500s. It halted nonstop trans-arctic flights from Singapore to New York at the same time, though both destinations are still served with stopovers.

The 13,600km San Francisco-Singapore route is already served once daily by both carriers, with United deploying a 787-9 and SIA using an A350-900.

SIA has disclosed plans to resume serving New York and Los Angeles nonstop in 2018, when it takes delivery of its first A350-900ULR – an ultra-long-range variant of the next-generation aircraft. SIA plans to configure that aircraft with 94 seats in Premium Economy and 68 in Business.

The previous record-holder for the longest flight from the US was Qantas, Australia’s flag-carrier, which flies 13,800km nonstop between Dallas and Sydney.


(Martin Rivers - Forbes)

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