Singapore to put its A340-500s out of their misery :-)

[JF Mezei]

http://www.singaporeair.com/jsp/cms/en_UK/press_release_news/ne121024.jsp

As part of a deal to order 5 more A380s and 20 additional A350-900s,
Singapore will be sending back to Airbus its 5 A340-500s in the 4th
quarter of 2013.

This means that at the end of next year, Singapore Airlines will be
forced to cease its non stop flights between Singapore-LosAngeles.

The 350-900 claims it will be able to do 8100nm, not enough for SIN-EWR
even if it meets its promises when delivered, so Singapore has nothing
in its fleet or on order that could do that mission.

So it appears that Singapore could order 5 777-200LRs (known to have the
range) or 5 350-800s, promised to have 8500nm range.

Airbus will already have 777 and 350s in its fleet, so ordering a long
range variant of either 777 or 350 for those routes would not add a new
type to its fleet.

Is this a case where such long hauls are not economically viable due to
cost of transporting so much fuel ? Or could this be that Singapore
doesn't have confidence in the USA economy's demand for premium seats on
that route ?

Could they not choose/upgrade an airport in Russia or even Canadian
arctic or Greenland where a "normal" plane could land, refuel and get to
destination ? Would this provide better and faster service than
stopping in either Frankfurt or Hongkong without needing to buy extra
long range aircraft ?



Somce SG fleet data:

SG already has 19 A380s (celebrated its 5th year in operation on October
25th 2012).

They already had 20 firm orders for 350s, so they are to double their
350 fleet.

The 20 787s on order will be shifted down to their Scoot low cost
subsidiary.

The SG 380s now serve 10 destinations: Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los
Angeles, Melbourne, New York, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo and Zurich. Ordering
5 more of the beasts does provide some indication that the plane is not
a dud.

SG also has 15 330-300s still on order as well as 8 more 777-300ERs.



Airbus has received a whopping 257 firm orders from 20 customers. Is
that still in financial disaster territory ? At this poit in time, would
they even bother talking about breaking even ? I assume the number would
be well above 400 by now ?


The first commercial delivery of 350 now scheduled for late 2014. Isn't
that a year late ? They are now in process of assembling the first test
flyable aircraft. Like for the 787, sections arrive at the FAL with the
interiors supposedly fully outfitted. Lets hope they really are and
Airbus won't have all the "travel work" nightmares that Boeing had.
--
misc.travel.air-industry is a moderated newsgroup. Please mail messages to
mt...@airinfo.aero, and see http://mtai.airinfo.aero for the FAQ and policies.