Singapore Airlines: no new ultra-long range A350 business class

Singapore Airlines won’t be rolling out an all-new business class for its non-stop flights to New York, or the closer destinations of Los Angeles and San Francisco, at least for the next few years.

Hopes were high that the fleet of Airbus A350-900ULR jets might emerge from a mid-year round of scheduled maintenance decked out with all-new business class seats.

Those seats would have replaced the A350’s current business class, based on a design from the early 2010s which debuted in 2013 – and which retains two less-traveller friends traits:

• the seat must be manually flipped over to become a bed, rather than gradually reclining through several positions
• small spaces into which passengers have to carefully tuck their feet (while also sleeping at an angle)

When Executive Traveller first revealed Singapore Airlines’ A350 plans in mid-2022, a spokesperson for the airline coyly yet teasingly commented that “Singapore Airlines continuously reviews the cabin product offerings across its fleet and cabin classes.”

Singapore Airlines' current A350 ultra-long range business class.

The speculation was that Singapore Airlines might upgrade the business class experience on its longest flights with the all-new suites intended for the Singapore Airlines’ long-delayed Boeing 777-9.

(That’s the same path now chosen by regional rival Cathay Pacific, which is now upgrading its Boeing 777-300ER jets with the same Aria Suites business class initially created for the Cathay 777-9s (with a new Cathay 777 first class to follow).

However, a spokesperson for Singapore Airlines this week confirmed to Executive Traveller that the A350s would not see any new seats or cabin changes during this maintenance period.

That not only rules out a surprise appearance of SQ’s new 777-9 business class and possible the companion second-gen premium economy seat, but also any rejig of the current two-class floorplan of 67 business class seats and 94 premium economy recliners.

(By comparison, Qantas has opted for a conventional four-class layout on its forthcoming Project Sunrise A350-1000ULR jets which will tackle 18-20 hour marathon flights from Sydney and Melbourne to London and New York from mid-2026.)

Singapore Airlines says the A350 maintenance schedule will stretch through “to the first quarter of 2025.”

As recently as May this year, SQ was targeting the same year for the arrival of its new 777-9s with what’s expected to contain business class suites with sliding privacy doors, 4K video screens, streaming Bluetooth audio, wireless charging and all the other mod cons.

“At this point in time, based on our understanding, we are expecting the Boeing 777-9s to be delivered next year,” remarked CEO Goh Choon Phong during an airline briefing on May 16, 2024.

However, all signs now point to 2026 for the first 777-9 to roll into then hangars of launch airlines Emirates and Lufthansa.