Singapore Airlines to launch Sydney-Jakarta-Singapore flights

By Chris C., September 28 2016
Singapore Airlines to launch Sydney-Jakarta-Singapore flights

UPDATE | Singapore Airlines' plans to launch Sydney-Jakarta-Singapore flights have been paused following a decision by the Indonesian government to withdraw its approval for the new route.

Read more: Singapore Airlines defers Sydney-Jakarta-Singapore route launch

 

PREVIOUS | Star Alliance member Singapore Airlines will launch flights from Sydney to Jakarta and then onwards to Singapore from November 23 2016.

Running three times each week, SIA’s latest flight will leave Sydney at 11am on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, reaching Jakarta at 2:35pm. The flight will then continue to Singapore at 3:35pm before touching down in the Lion City at 6:10pm local time.

On the return, it’s wheels-up from Singapore at 8:15pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for a 9pm pit stop in the Indonesian capital, before leaving for Sydney at 10:25pm and arriving at 9:30am the following morning.

The flights will be served by a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, fitted with fully-flat beds in business class with direct aisle access from every seat in a similar style to SQ's Airbus A380s (pictured):

AusBT review: Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 business class, Singapore-London

It’s believed that passengers will be able to travel between Australia and Indonesia without needing to fly onwards to Singapore – and likewise from Singapore to Jakarta without including Australia – in a similar style to other popular ‘fifth freedom’ flights like Emirates’ trans-Tasman routes.

Both Qantas and Garuda Indonesia already offer non-stop flights from Sydney to Jakarta, although not on Tuesdays and Thursdays where Singapore Airlines will step in.

Tickets for these new Singapore Airlines flights will go on sale shortly.

Also read: Emirates resumes Brisbane-Singapore-Dubai flights

Connect with other business travellers in our Singapore Airlines discussion group

Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

31 Aug 2015

Total posts 121

Will this be a Virgin codeshare?

24 Apr 2012

Total posts 2431

That's the kind of thing we'd include in the article if it were known, but for now, Singapore Airlines has only just announced the route and tickets aren't even on sale yet, so give it time. :)

25 Sep 2013

Total posts 1242

Interesting SQ is using a refurbished B772 for this new route but elected to use the old B772 with angled lie flat seats in business for the Capital Express.

AJW
AJW

16 Nov 2011

Total posts 580

Eminere, you need to better understand SQ's product offering.

The angled seats on the CBR route (and 777-300 (non ER) and A330) are the regional offering, and in the case of the 777's were only fitted about 2-3 years ago.

The seats on the aircraft mentioned here is their long haul product. Found on some slim European routes, plus some  routes around Asia either as long haul feeders or simply just to utilise the aircraft.

So nothing to do with age or product, more to do with what SQ considers the market will/can take. CX does the same.

AJW
AJW

16 Nov 2011

Total posts 580

PS, they don't have too many 777-200ER's with the long haul product. About 5.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

10 Apr 2012

Total posts 318

I think what eminere was referring to is giving an "angled" J regional product for the "Capital" Express where there are probably more higher spenders, and giving the better Long haul product to the more leisure Jakarta route...

AJW
AJW

16 Nov 2011

Total posts 580

He was calling the angled flat the 'old' product and the fully flat refurbished. Same as an article I saw in the paper the other day. 


The fact is the angle flat is actually the newer of the products and is found on the refurbished (regional) aircraft. 

Airlines like SQ have different products for different markets. 

That was the point I was making with CX too they have different products for different markets ita not a matter of old or new product but regional/long haul. 

Oh and they have CBR the regional 777 for the higher business class seat count. 

25 Sep 2013

Total posts 1242

Precisely, highflyer.

AJW
AJW

16 Nov 2011

Total posts 580

eminere I took exception to the misnomer that the angled flat product is old and fully flat new and refurbished. Both angled flat (really regional) and fully flat (long haul) date from around the same time. Though the regional seat is newer by a few years, with the long haul seat being the one planed to debut on the A380 10 years ago. So not an case of old and new.


Where maybe it is confusing is SQ refer to their regional 777-200ER's simply as 777-200's, so look at the SQ seat map page and you will see refitted -200's, with angled flat regional seats. For the most part the long haul ones are the SV* series and regional the SQ* and SR* series, with a few exceptions. They also have a couple of non refurbished 777-200ER's too with sit-up business class seats, these are the ones with 30J seats.

As for what they are flying to Canberra, SQ made it clear they choose the regional 777-200ER (over the A330) for the business class seat count. The long haul -200's have about 10 less business class seats compared to the regional ones, and 2 less than the A330's they were originally rumoured to have been running. And as mentioned elsewhere they do not have that many long haul 777-200ER's anyway.

Yes know will probably get voted down in my posts, but that is the facts.

07 Oct 2012

Total posts 1250

Not sure if CX is flying too many, if any, long haul routes with their regional configured birds...also the SIN-CBR service is overnight both ways, whereas SYD-CGK is a daytime flight. 


Anyway, good on SQ for trying something different.

AJW
AJW

16 Nov 2011

Total posts 580

Who said they were? I was just pointing out that CX also have different long haul and regional product. 


For what it is worth SQ don't fly their regional birds long haul either. SIN-AUS is regional though yes places like SYD/CBR/MEl getting to the barrier to long haul. 
SQ do flyblong haul configured aircraft to Australia on some routes due to market demand for first class and to cater for the high yield connecting traffic. 

31 Mar 2016

Total posts 619

@AJW:

"...just pointing out that CX also have different long haul and regional product...SIN-AUS is regional though yes places like SYD/CBR/MEl getting to the barrier to long haul."

I think you are on the right track re SQ technically consider the AU->SIN mkt(Note: northbound block time is used as the op planning benchmark as it's a tad longer than southbound) overall as long regional /medium-haul ops but not CX which consider AU->HKG as longhaul ops.  In fact for the past 4+ decades & for operators worldwide, the dividing line(i.e. what you refer to as the "barrier") between longhaul and medium haul hovers very near the 8hrs block time(Most choose 8hrs). 

CX flies from 6 AU destinations to HKG nonstop.  Only CNS->HKG route has a block time under 7h45m but  frequency isn't even daily.  Of the remaining 5 routes, block time for 4 of them is @ least 8h40m with the longest being 9h40m.  So logically & by worldwide convention, CX considers the vast majority of its AU frequencies as longhaul ops.

SQ also flies from 6 AU destinations to SIN nonstop(Also CGK soon).  In contrast, only 2 routes exceed 8hrs block time(no route exceeds 8h20m) while the shortest is only 5h15m on PER->SIN.  Logical for SQ to consider vast majority of its AU mkt technically as medium-haul ops.

So why SQ deploys longhaul J on SYD->CGK(7h35m) but regional/medium-haul J on CBR->SIN(8h5m)?  Contrary to popular belief on this website, matching a product to block time duration, an inward looking approach(And ok decades ago), is no longer the main deciding factor.  Degree of mkt competition, a more outward looking approach, is now the most important determining factor.  How many players on SYD-CGK route?  2(And soon 3) and all offering horizontal flat bed in J.  And how many player on CBR-SIN route? 1...easy to imagine SQ can get away with domestic style recliner in J(let alone the inclined lie-flat seat actually being using) if they choose to....

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

09 May 2011

Total posts 362

Seems odd that Singapore Airlines have chosen to operate this route. I would have thought the SYD-CGK route was well served with Garuda and Qantas and I don't see much benefit to Singapore operating it other than filling a gap on days with no current flight.

AJW
AJW

16 Nov 2011

Total posts 580

As the article mentioned demand has gone up 16% in the last year.


There are also rumours that Qantas was to go from 4 weekly (5 during peak holiday times) to daily once they get free A330 capacity after the refurbishment program is complete, so this could be a spoiler. Interestingly look at the days SQ plans to fly and in the CGK-SIN direction Tue and Thur are days Qantas doesn't fly and Friday is the busiest day anyway. 

And between SIN-CGK it plugs a 3 hour gap in the schedule between flights too, one of the longest during the day. This schedule allows them to run that flight and then not have an extra a/c sitting overnight in CGK and then trying to find a use for it the next day.

The 2155 SIN-CGK flight is the only one that overnights in CGK and operates first flight out, for the rest of the day the SIN-CGK flights operate SIN-CGK and straight back.

Also SQ is a brand that Indonesians really like, so could well be a winner for SQ to tap into that market.

31 Mar 2016

Total posts 619

@aklrunway:

"Seems odd that Singapore Airlines have chosen to operate this route....I would have thought the SYD-CGK route was well served with Garuda and Qantas and I don't see much benefit to Singapore operating it..."

Do U also think it's odd that EK has chosen to operate SYD-AKL?  With NZ, VA, JQ, QF, Latam and CI all on that route, it's  even better served than SYD-CGK.  Yet EK has been there for yrs and no sign of it pulling out anytime soon.  This is despite the fact that EK @ SYD mkt has far fewer total traffic(therefore op scale) than SQ @ CGK mkt.  On a typical day, SQ has 10x daily on CGK-SIN operated by nothing smaller than a 772ER.

Fleet deployment /investment-wise, it's a piece of cake for SQ to find a spare airframe from 1 of those 10x daily frequency @ CGK to fly onward to SYD for only a few rotations per wk - low fleet investment for potentially pretty high return in a double digit % growth mkt.....still don't see much benefit to SQ?



AJW
AJW

16 Nov 2011

Total posts 580

Actually FLX, this is an extra flight. Mentioned it above but SQ has a 3.5 hour gap on SIN-CGK from around 6:30 (SQ966) to 9:55 (SQ968) and this extra fits right into the middle. Reason I reckon there is a gap is the A/C that operates SQ966 returns to SIN as SQ967 arriving at 11pm, so any later departure ex SIN would really need to overnight in CGK rather than return. So they leave a gap to SQ968 which is the one that overnights.


This new flight fills that gap (3 times a week of course), plus means they don't need to leave the a/c on the ground in CGK and find a use for it the next morning.

And going back to SIN, the flight will leaves around 15:30 which is another hole in the schedule which can be filled, this time without worrying about sending an aircraft from SIN in the middle of the day. Very cleaver, plus capitalises on the good brand SQ as in the premium market in CGK, hence the 10 flights a day, including some that have first class.

29 Mar 2014

Total posts 78

These are not the only flights being added. SIN-CGK is now moving to "up to 11 times daily", with SQ adding new flights to cover the gaps in SQ261/262's schedule. e.g.: SQ261 to Jakarta runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday, there is a new SQ954 flight covering the remaining 5 days of the week. In the opposite direction SQ262 to Singapore runs Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, SQ937 covers the remaining 4 days of the week.


Here are the new flights, as well as the to Sydney flight added in to show you what I mean:
SQ934 SIN1350

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

01 Mar 2013

Total posts 171

I think this is a winner...for the simple reason that if you are doing a sprint through SE Asia and wanting to do so on a compact ticket the SQ option makes sense. Thanks, Chris.

AJW
AJW

16 Nov 2011

Total posts 580

Will help, but reckon main reason is to capitalise on the SQ brand in the Indonesian market, especially in the premium cabin, hence the long haul product too.

10 Aug 2015

Total posts 122

It would be good if SQ went daily on the SIN-BNE SQ265 3x weekly service and upgraded from A330-300s to 777s for BNE

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

19 Feb 2014

Total posts 439

Definitely some good quality offerings from Sydney to Jakarta.


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