SIA to permanently retire 7 A380s and 21 other aircraft
 

Sad but not unexpected. (Correction: 7 A380s and 19 other aircraft).

So which routes do we think will lose the A380? From a purely selfish perspective, do we think that the A380 will fly to the US when it returns? I was supposed to fly on it JFK-FRA-SIN in January but have since cancelled those plans.

Problem with the JFK via FRA route is that it occupies 3 aircraft at all times, quite a big ask among a fleet of 12 given that at least one will have to be effectively a standby or provide maintenance downtime cover.

If that route comes back I'd think it will be a Boeing 777-300ER at best (perhaps in years to come the newer 777-9).

Flagship routes like London and Sydney should keep the A380, the rest is anyone's guess.

2 daily - LHR SYD
1 daily - PVG PEK HKG (morning departures for work travellers)
A few weeks a year irregular upgauge - NRT MEL DEL
My guess is that's it.

Do you think there is the potential for an A380 flight from the west coast of the US?

Quite unlikely. Not able to fly non stop.
The only possible may be SIN-NRT-LAX.
It has been using A388 on this route before.

instead of retiring these aircraft, at least the 777s, they should look at expanding Scoot.

Getting people flying again, will be achieved faster by low fares. Qantas is doing this in Australia by getting Jetstar to fly more aircraft on busy routes.

Plenty of routes that Scoot could fly such as Australia to USA & Canada. It would have to be via a 3rd country, but plenty of Pacific nations would happily let Scoot use their traffic rights.

1 stop Australia to USA works well for air new zealand, fiji airways etc.

Singapore already fly to most major Australian ports & LAX, SFO etc. in USA.

1000s of B777 pilots of flight attendants not working at present. Many would work for less.

If they are retiring aircraft, their value must have been written down to virtually nothing. Could they sell them ? Yes, but for very little.

What the major difference between a legacy airlines & their low cost equivalent ?

Staff numbers & pay ?

Presume they have far staff on far less pay than their parent.

Maybe they use parent companies back office, to stop any duplication.

Worldwide recession, seems to indicate that low cost carriers will boom at the expense of legacy carriers.

So SQ is going to scrap all these 7 A380? Or are parking them somewhere first. ? And might bring them back if demand pick up.

Any idea what are the cost of parking a plane at Alice spring or elsewhere.

SIN-SFO is shorter than SYD-DFW and DXB-AKL, the longest A380 routes flown pre-COVID. But IIRC, it would need to have load restrictions on the westbound direction (like DFW-SYD has) and presumably is a very costly way of flying non-stop when A350's are much cheaper.

Great Circle Mapper

This is a bit disappointing to hear, but it certainly makes sense. Given that my trip on the A380 in a suite for Jan 2021 has been cancelled I am currently sitting on a very large pile of miles. I'm planning on re-booking the trip for winter 2022. Given my large pile of miles, I can afford an advantage award from LHR-SIN. I think I recall reading that suites awards LHR-SIN are rarely available even as advantage awards. Is that true? Hopefully the A380 will be back in 2022!

SQ is more likely to use two A350 instead of one A380, unless there are heavy cash demand for first class.

LHR will not be slot-restricted for a long time to come.

I imagine Narita/Japan would almost certainly not get the a380 back -- a huge shame as I had new suites redemption on it in late-Mar / early-Apr :(

JFK will lose the A380. SQ have the approval to fly SIN-Tokyo-JFK as well.

So either they maintain one daily SIN-FRA-JFK using A350 or 777 n then add on another non stop option or via Tokyo option.

Sigh. Fond memories on SQ A380, and extremely sad to see them go.

My first ride SIN-SYD... didn't sleep a wink on the entire red eye flight... but the quietness of the cabin made me arrive fresh as a bird and ready to hit work for the day.

My last ride was CDG-SIN... where my travel companion and I had the entire last J section on upperdeck all by ourselves.

I've looked to make a dummy booking and SQ still loaded in mid-February 2021 with A380 on JFK-FRA. I do hope it stays! If they changed it's departure on the return (eg, leave FRA later) it could garner much more attention for Euro travelers (and the nonstop out of SIN would still give people a morning arrival into NYC). AC also wouldn't then sit for 12 hours in JFK.