As Singapore relaxes its borders, Singapore Airlines is bringing back its flagship A380 into service next month.
Singapore Airlines Will Return A380 To Service
Grounded since the pandemic began, the Airbus A380 features Singapore’s flagship suites and carries up to 471 passengers. With borders closed and demand virtually zero, there was no need to run this four-engine jet over the last 18 months. But Singapore will re-open to vaccinated travelers from nine countries as the pandemic recedes to an endemic.
Singapore Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL)
Under its Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) program, vaccinated passengers from 13 countries will be allowed quarantine-free access to Singapore starting on October 18th, including:
- Brunei
- Canada
- China
- Hong Kong
- Mainland
- Macau
- Denmark
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- the Netherlands
- South Korea (from November 15th)
- Spain
- Taiwan
- United Kingdom
- USA
Citizens of China, Brunei and Germany are already allowed access, but will no longer have to provide a negative COVID-19 test.
Singapore Airlines A380 Schedule
Addressing the return of the A380, Singapore shared:
“With the inclusion of UK in the VTL arrangements, SIA has seen strong passenger demand for services to and from London towards the year-end holiday season. The A380 has always been a popular choice for our customers and we look forward to welcoming our customers on board the aircraft once again.”
Per The Straits Times, SIA will deploy the A380 sporadically on short-haul services before commencing the daily London service.
The new London A380 service will operate according to the following schedule:
- SQ322 – dep Singapore 11:45PM, arr London 5:55AM+1
- SQ317 – dep London 10:55AM, arr Singapore 7:50AM+1
Will I finally get to fly the new Singapore Suites?
CONCLUSION
Singapore joins British Airways and Qatar Airways in bringing back the A380 into service. I’m encouraged to see this plane return and hold (a small sliver) of hope that Lufthansa and Korean will also restore service sooner rather than later.
Singapore has 12 A380s in its fleet, so helpfully we will see it deployed to more destinations in the months aheads.
(H/T: SINJim)
This aircraft is a curious choice with fuel prices currently so high.
The first and business class on VTL flights in holiday seasons are full almost already and all airlines charge a huge premium for these flights, so the high oil prices and operating costs would be justified.
Yay!
@Matthew, given some flexibility, can your award booking service get 2 first class saver seats in either direction between the US and Asia?
These days, I wonder, but we’d be happy to try.
Fair enough. I’m not up to the task myself. Thanks for the response.