Flyer458

Since its 2024 etc thunk Singapore Airlines could possibly see the Airline expanding outside of Heathrow like I know they fly from Manchester but that's via Houston texas
but since Emirates fly ftom Glasgow, Brimington Manchester, Newcastle and of course London airports
could Singapore Airlines do something similar or even operate from Glasgow or Edinburgh in the near future
I mean.its 1996 or 2003, i mean days kf connected at Heathrow or dubai to catch a connected flight should be over by now we need direct flights from these airlines

Juliet68

Manchester to Singapore is not via Houston, its non stop from Manchester to Singapore.

Flyer458

Yeah ok but wil the airline ever expand beyond Manchester or Heathrow

onlySIA

Sorry to give a fatuous reply but it basically comes down to economics. Is there going to be enough business class travel from Edinburgh? And SQ don't currently have many spare aircraft to start up new routes, at least until they get their Boeing 777Xs in 2025/6.

angetenar

UK-SIN is roughly twice the length of UK-DXB, and as a result, route economics need to be stronger to make a route work. In particular, as flights get longer, they rely more and more on premium cabin demand to make a profit.

Singapore_Air

Gatwick would be interesting

CHCflyer

The SQ JV with Lufthansa to all points in Europe means that they really don't need to do that much more. As long as they skim the best bits of Europe to feed their existing network via the LH short haul network then there is no real reason to stick your neck out. All airlines tell me that they don't really need to do much that's new as the pre-Covid BAU model works fine, unless you are United with a fleet of clunkers needing work

Juliet68

I was told years ago that the reason Manchester was tagged into other routes was because they couldn’t fill business class with just Manchester passengers. I guess that is an issue other locations in the UK could have.

(I do wish Manchester would get book the cook!)

Flyer458

Buts that model been working for 30 plus years I find it shocking that in 2023/2024 people are still connected via hubs bevit dubai or Heathrow I mean it's notc1993 orc2003 or 2004 etc no excuse for to have more airlines operating out of more uk regional hubs like Newcastle Birmingham and Glasgow or Edinburgh etc I mean if Emirates can do it then so can Singapore Airlines or cathay pasfic or even hainan airlines

MeltingAlf

SQ tried Gatwick with Scoot on their Gatwick-Bangkok-Singapore flight. Pulled it still after one season. If Scoot can't make it I don't think SQ will even bother to try.

UK ex-London unfortunately is not a high-yield market (like, Newcastle can only accommodate one EK flight; Cardiff a singular route from QR if it opens again), and Manchester was one-stop via Munich before it went direct. And I assume the 777X are there to replace the 77W + A380s when they come online

lokijuh

This doesn't necessarily follow, the economics of operating a plane over 3400 miles are very different to operating over 6800 miles. IIRC, it largely gets down to "you've got to carry extra fuel to carry the extra fuel", which adds cost and reduces payload (in terms of freight). So you need to have good yields (charge good $$$) across all cabins to make it work. Remember also Emirates is connecting Middle East, Subcontinent, SE Asia, NE Asia and Australia/NZ traffic to their various UK ports (and lot of "visiting friends and relatives" demand from the subcontinent), whereas geographically Singapore Airlines is really only serving SE Asia and Australia/NZ to Europe (even NE Asia is a big detour).

There are still some big cities across Europe that Singapore Airlines doesn't even serve (for the exact same reasons) - such as Madrid, Stockholm, Warsaw, Geneva, Vienna. Even Athens and Berlin are only served by Scoot. They are starting Brussels next year, their first new destination in Europe since Dusseldorf (which was dropped during COVID and didn't return).

bent

Would love to see SQ target another airport in France as a new destination given the size/ population of France.

for UK, secondary cities just won’t cut it due to lack of premium traffic. SQ might scoop up scoots slots for LGW, who knows.

SilverChris

Even MAN has been a somewhat marginal route route for a very long time. Not quite bad enough to drop entirely, but also not strong enough to stand on its own in a meaningful way. In the late 2000s it was a nonstop 77E 3x weekly, before being tagged to MUC, and now IAH.

EK attracts a lot of South Asian connecting traffic, plus the British holidaymakers going to places like DXB, MLE, MRU and beyond. None of these markets make sense via SIN, so it's wrong to compare SQ directly with EK. Different carriers, different circumstances.

PES_B1

EK have traffic come and go from everywhere, they even fly to London Stansted. While Hainan airways always fly where subsidy calls.

Ynox

I'd be very surprised if QR return to CWL. Guess we'll see. I heard rumours QR were making money on this even with empty planes due to Welsh gov subsidies...

As others have said, regional flights by e.g. ME3 benefit from a huge amount of connecting traffic to the Indian subcontinent as well as other locations. There just probably isn't the load to justify this for SQ.