Singapore Airlines' SilkAir gets lie-flat business class
By David Flynn, February 11 2019
Singapore Airlines' regional arm SilkAir will upgrade its Boeing 737 business class to lie-flat seats next year using Thompson Aero's popular Vantage design.
The new business class seats will debut on SilkAir's growing Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet from May 2020 – the airline has five MAX 8s already in the air, with 32 more to follow – and will also be retrofitted to its Boeing 737-800 jets, with the older Airbus A320 aircraft being retired.
A spokesman for Singapore Airlines confirmed the choice of the Vantage, which has gained single-aisle cred via US carrier JetBlue’s Mint premium cabin and FlyDubai (shown below)...
... and was most recently selected by Aer Lingus for its forthcoming Airbus A321LR jets.
Boeing is also spruiking a customised version of the Vantage business class seating in promotional material for its 737 MAX jets.
Singapore Airlines says the Boeing 737 seats will have many similarities to its latest regional business class seating found on its Boeing 787-10s and selected Airbus A350s, including a forward-facing design – and while the Vantage lacks direct aisle access for every passenger, it does offer a handful of 'throne' seats for solo flyers.
SilkAir’s A$100 million upgrade will also see seatback video screens fitted in both business class and economy class.
The move is being touted as delivering 'a consistent premium experience across both international and regional Singapore Airlines flights', and will come as Singapore Airlines takes over SilkAir to become a unified premium airline brand across Asia and around the world.
SilkAir's current flagship business class product is the wide recliner of its new Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet.
SilkAir's latest Boeing 737 MAX 8 business class
AusBT review: Review: SilkAir Boeing 737 MAX business class
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 Nov 2018
Total posts 104
Huge upgrade on what’s already a comfortable product on short haul flights.
22 Jan 2018
Total posts 99
Thank God! Now if only Cathay dragon can follow suit!
05 Jul 2016
Total posts 22
Or at least if Cathay had flat beds on all flights and not their ridiculous recliner regional "business" class seats on many red-eye flights and long flights of up to 5 hours such as Jakarta, Bali, Sapporo, and extremely expensive routes such as Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing etc.
19 Jul 2017
Total posts 7
The vantage product is already on flydubai 737 Max
08 Sep 2018
Total posts 26
Virgin I hope you are taking note!
28 Dec 2016
Total posts 74
The seats do look somewhat narrow though...
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
14 Mar 2017
Total posts 152
They aren't as narrow as they look. The high table sides give that appearance, but in practice they are fine. Comfortable too.
17 Sep 2015
Total posts 371
SilkAir (MI) won't however be the first international airline to fly lie flat business class seats to and from Oz in a narrowbody aircraft.
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