The world’s first airline to operate all the 787 Dreamliner family of models.
Singapore Airlines, the world’s first carrier to receive the largest version of the Dreamliner jet, said it will invest US$350 million (S$458 million) to equip its initial 20 aircraft on order with new cabin products.
Singapore Airlines is the biggest customer for the Boeing Co 787-10 aircraft, with 49 on order. With the arrival of the new plane in Singapore on Wednesday (March 28), the airline is now the world’s first to operate all the 787 Dreamliner family of models.
It plans to use the 337-seat plane as the backbone of its medium-haul fleet on flights of up to eight hours, with services to be introduced on flights to Osaka, Japan and Perth, Australia in May.
It will offer new fully-flat seats, all with aisle access in the 787-10 business class cabin.
Some services to key corporate markets like Australia, Japan and South Korea have lacked that level of comfort when the airline has used its older regional fleet of Airbus SE A330s and Boeing 777s.
Singapore Airlines intends to deploy the aircraft progressively to more destinations in Japan, chief exectuve Goh Choon Phong told reporters at the unveiling of the cabin products after the 787-10 arrived on Wednesday.
“The 787-10 is a bigger aircraft and because of the way we configure it, it is a very efficient use of the space…that is going to inject capacity increase on the Japanese routes,” Mr Goh said, adding the Japan routes were experiencing high demand.
The new business class seats will help the airline remain competitive against rivals such as Japan Airlines and Australia’s Qantas Airways.
The fuel-efficient jet will help Singapore Airlines lower its cost base, improve its product for business travellers and return to major capacity growth at its premium brand after years of being more focused on expanding in the budget sector.
The carrier last year launched a three-year transformation programme designed to help it compete more effectively against Chinese and Middle Eastern rivals and low-cost carriers.
Mr Goh said the carrier was open to acquiring a stake in Air India, but had not formally expressed interest. “We have to see what are the details and we decide from there,” he told reporters.
Singapore Airlines operates 98 flights a week to India and plans to increase that to 104 by the middle of the year. Its low-cost airline, Scoot, operates 46 flights to India.
Vistara, which the company owns jointly with India’s Tata Group, is looking to launch first international flights in the second half of the year, Mr Goh said.
By 2023, the 787-10 will account for one-third of the Singapore Airlines fleet, according to CAPA Centre for Aviation, with the jets increasing capacity by around 5 percent a year for the next several years because they are replacing older jets with fewer seats.
“The highly-efficient 787-10 will reduce Singapore Airlines’ costs significantly, but the resulting capacity increases could be challenging to manage,” CAPA chief analyst Brendan Sobie said. “The parent airline has not grown over the last decade and is betting that the 787-10 is the right platform to support a resumption of growth.”