Singapore Airlines will launch 3x weekly flights between two great European cities, as it prepares to restart its service to Milan (MXP) and add a Fifth Freedom tag flight to Barcelona (BCN).
New European Fifth Freedom Flight For Singapore Airlines
With modern, more fuel efficient jetliners, we have seen fewer Fifth Freedom flights, which are flights in which an airline from one country operates flights between two other countries (as part of its connecting service to its home country). For example, Singapore Airlines operates service from New York to Singapore via Frankfurt and sells tickets between New York (JFK) and Frankfurt (FRA) on a stand-alone basis. This is known as a Fifth Freedom flight.
The new Fifth Freedom service between Milan and Barcelona will launch on January 17, 2022 and operate three times weekly (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) using an Airbus A350-900:
- SQ378 departs Milan (MXP) 07:15 a.m. – arrives Barcelona (BCN) 08:50 a.m.
- SQ379 departs Barcelona (BCN) 10:10 a.m. – arrives Milan (MXP) 11:50 a.m.
(I recently reviewed Singanpore’s A350-900 longhaul aircraft here)
> Read More: Singapore Airlines A350-900 Review BKK – SIN + SIN – LAX
The pandemic has also greatly reduced intercontinental flights schedules, but that could actually result in more Fifth Freedom flights going forward. In this case, Singapore likely did not see the commercial viability of operating flights to both Milan and Barcelona, but this arrangement allows it to serve both cities, even if travelers in Barcelona have to make an extra stop enroute.
Generally, these flights are full service, though at 1 hour, 25 minutes service may not be as extensive as you might expect on a one hour flight intra-Asia.
Can You Use Miles To Book This New Singapore Airlines Fifth Freedom Flight?
Theoretically, this 448-mile flight can be booked with the following programs on a one-way basis:
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- 17,000 miles – economy class
- 25,000 miles business class
- United Airlines MileagePlus
- 6,000 miles – economy class
- 27,500 miles – business class
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- 7,500 miles – economy class
- 15,000 miles – business class
But I say “theoretically” because Singapore Airlines has traditionally been quite stingy in opening award space on its own flights to its Star Alliance partners and thus far, I only see the award space available through Singapore’s own KrisFlyer program.
Paid fares are about double of Spanish budget carrier Vueling on the same route, but still cheap enough: $122 one-way in economy class. Business class tickets are about $331 each way.
CONCLUSION
Singapore Airlines is launching a new Fifth Freedom flight between Milan and Barcelona. The service begins on January 17th, operates 3x weekly, and tickets are now sale.
Will you take this new Singapore Airlines Fifth Freedom flight?
(H/T: Travel With Massi)
Just imagine if such flights were allowed between say, EWR and SFO or ORD and LAX…..
Unfortunately, U.S. legacy airlines, along with their odious unions, will continue to work with our pusillanimous politicians to deny such choices to American consumers.
But those are not the best comparisons to make, since the flight Matthew is talking about is between 2 different countries. In the cases you mentioned, would be like Singapore offering a flight between Paris and Marseilles…
I wasn’t particularly trying to make a comparison, nor do I want to waste time splitting hairs over what’s precisely comparable.
I’m simply making the point that the US govt’s enforcement of the legacy airlines’ oligopoly hurts consumers in this country.
But as pointed out below, there are 5th freedom flights operation to and from the US, to both Asia and Europe. I can’t think of any country allowing a foreign airline to offer inter-country flights by a foreign airline from one local city to another.
British Airways in South Africa, maybe, but that’s about it.
There is not much difference between a PAR-MRS flight and a MXP-BCN one- they’re both intra-Schengen flights on which EU citizens may travel without a passport.
Not everyone on those flights are European citizens, and they are still traveling to different countries.
The EU has a common air market (from wikipedia: “The ECAA liberalises the air transport industry by allowing any company from any ECAA member state to fly between any ECAA member states airports, thereby allowing a “foreign” airline to provide domestic flights.”), so there is some similarity between operating an inter-EU flight and inter-USA flight.
My understanding was that the prohibition on allowing foreign carriers to run inter-USA flights is for national security purposes — we want to make sure we have civilian aircraft fleets that can be nationalized in times of emergency or used to transport troops. For example, US carriers were used to evacuate Afghanistan (not directly but flew from Qatar to Germany and the US).
Except there already are 5th freedom flights involving the U.S., including on Singapore (Houston – Manchester)
I’ve been on that flight! It was a whirlwind tour from Singapore to Barcelona to home for a week.
Another fun 5th Freedom Flight that Singapore offers in Europe is between Copenhagen and Rome.
PIA used to operate this route as well but suspended it with their European ban. That ban will likely be lifted in the next few months according to multiple regulators, but the CEO of PIA said during a recent interview with Sam Chui that their fifth freedom flights will likely not return (referencing this one) as it isn’t worth the extra pressurization cycles the aircraft endures just to serve BCN.
SIA may have better luck given the more efficient aircraft and they have less seats to fill (PIA operated a 777 on that route).