Singapore Airlines Unveils a Massive First-Class Suite to Compete with Gulf Rivals

Asia

What they have discovered is the load factor is quite low,” he said, adding that profitability likely will improve as Singapore sells a greater percentage of seats in a smaller cabin.

And even if Singapore doesn’t sell every seat, the airline might find that having an over-the-top cabin will help it sell more seats in business class and even economy class. Prospective customers might be intrigued by suites, and make assumptions that other cabins also will be luxurious.

“It can have a halo effect,” Sobie said. “There’s always this unquantifiable benefit you get with these types of products.

One potential issue: The new suite is being manufactured by Zodiac Seats UK. In recent months, United Airlines has complained that Zodiac has been behind schedule on its new Polaris class seats. But on Thursday, Singapore executives said they had no concerns about timely delivery of the product.

BUSINESS CLASS

Singapore Airlines has long had one of the world’s most luxurious business classes, but its seats have one main drawback. Unlike most others, passengers cannot recline their seat into a bed. Instead, to convert it, they must stand up and flip the seat over.

That approach may produce a more comfortable bed, but it’s a slight inconvenience. And since it takes time to make the switch, it essentially requires to passengers to make a commitment — Do they want a seat? Or a bed?

With the new A380 business class, Singapore has solved that problem. Its seat will recline into a bed. No flipping is required.

Singapore’s seat, designed by JPA Design of the UK and manufactured by JAMCO Corp. in Japan, is 25 inches wide and 78 inches long. It’ll have a 18-inch high-definition screen. There will be four seats in every row, and each seat will have unimpeded aisle access.

The seat is mostly standard, but has a few new features, including the larger bed that can be formed by joining the two center seats. The airline also said the seat will have more storage than usual, allowing customers to stow a full-size bag underneath it.

The new cabin will have 78 business class seats. Today, Singapore has two versions of the A380, one with 60 business class seats, and one with 86.

It is possible Singapore will add the same seats to other planes. But on Thursday, executives said they weren’t ready to announce whether they would retrofit other long-haul planes with the new product.

ECONOMY CLASS

Today, no Singapore Airlines A380 has more than 441 seats, but the new version will have 471. That means Singapore will reduce its number of premium seats, while adding seats in economy.

On one version of the A380 — the one that is already more dense — Singapore will add 10 economy class seats. On the other, which today has more premium seats, Singapore will add 98 economy class seats.

Even with more coach seats, Singapore executives say cabin comfort will not change. Instead, they say, they’re being more efficient with how they use space. It helps that the suites will move to the upper deck, allowing the airline to devote the entire main deck to economy class.

Singapore also made some other tweaks that passengers likely will not notice.

“We managed to optimize the real estate usage on the plane by locating the galleys and all those monuments in the right place so the space could be more efficiently used,” Goh said.

The economy class seats, manufactured by Recaro, may be thinner than the ones they replace. But according to the airline, they’ll have more legroom and back support, as well as a six-way adjustable headrest. They’ll also have an 11.1-inch touch-screen monitor.

Singapore’s premium economy product is not expected to change.