Two Asian Prestigious carriers arms up to upgrade services

  Hong Kong flagship carrier Cathay Pacific had announced to upgrade it's Tel Aviv route with their latest Airbus A350-1000 while Singapore Airlines announces Hong Kong and London will be the next two destination to receive new A380 layout. 

Cathay Pacific will temporarily deploy the -1000 on flights to the Israeli city starting from October 3, where the A350-1000 will fly the 11-hour-55-minute route on all days except Tuesday, replacing the aircraft’s smaller variant, the A350-900. Unfortunately for regular passengers on this route, the new aircraft is only due to fly to Tel Aviv until October 27, when the A350-900 will once again take over.

This aircraft change comes after the route' s only competitor, El Al, announces to serve this rotation with Boeing 787 Dreamliner instead of the original 772. 

The A350-1000 notably has a higher overall seating capacity, with Cathay Pacific outfitting it with 334 seats in total compared with the A350-900’s 280. This translates as 46 in business class, 32 in premium economy and 256 in economy – an increase across all three classes.  

Apart from Tel Aviv, Cathay has announced Washington DC route to be their first -1000 international long haul service, where services will start kn September 15 this year. Cathay Pacific is expected to take delivery of its first A350-1000 this spring, out of a total order of 20 aircraft. 

And as for Singapore Airlines, the star alliance carrier has announced to introduce their newest A380 fitted with first class suites and business class seats to Hong Kong and London rotation.  

For the London rotation, the comforting jumbo will be flown on SQ332, SQ305 and SQ317 starting from 17th February to April this year. 

For Hong Kong rotation, we will be seeing the jumbo upgrade from April onwards on SQ856 and SQ861. 

The top deck of Singapore Airlines' A380 is filled with six first class suites and 78 business class seats. Lower deck includes 44 premium economy and 343 economy class.  

The national carrier has just reported a higher passenger load factor of 84.7 percent in December, mainly contributed by medium haul flights.  

Photo by https://www.instagram.com/albertsetjadiningrat/ and singapore_aviationphotography