Singapore to Drop Newark & LAX Non-Stop Flights to Singapore

The world’s longest commercial flights are set to disappear with Singapore’s newly announced A380 & A350 order.  One of the stipulations of the order is that Airbus agrees to acquire the five Singapore A340-500s currently in service, including those used on the EWR-SIN and LAX-SIN routes.  The aircraft will be removed from service in Q4 2013.

As part of the deal, Airbus has agreed to acquire SIA’s five A340-500s, which will be removed from service in the fourth quarter of the 2013 calendar year, in line with the Airline’s policy to maintain a young fleet. This will result in the cessation of non-stop flights between Singapore and Los Angeles and between Singapore and Newark, in the absence of replacement aircraft in the SIA fleet with sufficient range and operating economics. Although disappointing that we will be halting these services, we remain very committed to the US market. Over the past two years we have increased capacity to both Los Angeles and New York by deploying A380 superjumbos on flights via Tokyo and Frankfurt. We will also continue to explore additional options to enhance our US services.

This also marks the end of Singapore Airlines service to Newark, even though it’s a hub for Star Alliance partner United. Instead, all New York flights will be operated from JFK.  The world’s longest flight title will also shift to Qantas’ SYD-DFW flight (7454nm) and Delta’s JNB-ATL flight (7334nm). See this post, The World’s Longest Flights – How Many Have You Flown to see what the updated list will look like with the first two flights removed.

Truly a sad day for aviation fans and aspirational award enthusiasts.  Remember, Singapore began releasing saver first and business class award seats to their KrisFlyer members several months ago and Star Alliance partners have had access to a few last minute award seats as well.  I was successful in finding award availability using United’s website about three days prior to the departure date. I would be on the lookout so you can experience the EWR-SIN all business class flight at 8285nm and almost 19 hours of flying time before it disappears into the record books! Related Post – Trip Report – Singapore Airlines EWR-SIN using UA Miles.