Originally Posted by
lingua101
Are you saying SQ does not have the 5th freedom right anymore between TPE and LAX?
I suspect, since they don't use it, they lose it.
Originally Posted by
lokijuh
Actually, based on my experience flying SIN-EWR on SQ22 (admittedly only three times) , the routing crossed into North America somewhere around ANC. So YVR is not that far out of the way travelling in that direction (and indeed when I looked at flightaware IIRC this was the most common routing for 22).
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=SIN-ANC-EWR,SIN-YVR-EWR
However, in the other direction it is a problem, typically SQ21 traversed either the polar route or Europe (a path of EWR-ARN-SIN).
You are right that they would fly over the polar caps, the problem is YVR has little to no load prospect as a direct route. So the profitability of said route isn't great.
As others have mentioned, you would ideally like a stop over somewhere to either pick up load or choose a market that can pay the premium for direct flights.
Originally Posted by
dcahkg
SQ's competitive advantage with US flights is probably going to be premium SIN-USA flows, and ASEAN-USA where existing competitors can't do as well a job. (Indonesia, maybe? But I can't see that being a big USA market for the time being.) ASEAN north of Malaysia is better flown through Northeast Asia/ME3 or even nonstop (see MNL).
While that is true, I don't think daily flights will be profitable unless SQ manages to funnel enough traffic to use Virgin America and connect on SQ to SIN.