Giant Dreamliner set to be in service
Singapore Airlines has announced the world's first Boeing 787-10 revenue route. Their Dreamliner will fly on short routes including Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur in March before starting regular services to Osaka in May.
Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur rotation will be used as crew-training flights.
The 787 planned route as follows: Singapore – Bangkok 03APR18 – 02MAY18 SQ970/973 Singapore – Kuala Lumpur 03APR18 – 31MAY18 SQ118/119 Singapore – Osaka Kansai eff 03MAY18 SQ618/619
Set to be the largest 787-10 operator, SIA has ordered 49 of those planes fitted with 337 seats in two classes: 36 in business and 301 in the economy. Singapore Airlines says it will debut its new regional cabin products on the 787-10. When compared with Emirates which plans to fit their Dreamliners with two class cabins for 240 passengers, we can clearly see that SIA will not use their Dreamliners on premium routes.
The Singapore to Osaka route is dominated by SIA, where it is served by Scoot Boeing 788 and SIA Airbus A333 daily. After the A333 is replaced by Dreamliner in May, there will be an 18 percent increase in passenger capacity.
Scoot has just started their inaugural flight from Osaka in December last year. After refueling in Osaka the 787-8 will continue its journey to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu.
We expect Singapore Airlines to place their densely configured Boeing 787-10 on medium-haul routes where they offer more than one daily flights to that destinations. Potential destinations may be Manila, Jakarta and Hong Kong. They will also use the -10 to use the new Dreamliners to replace aging A330s or possibly old 777-200s. There are rumors previously that SIA will use their Boeing 787-10 on European routes with medium to low capacity. However, with SIA to place dense configurations on their new planes, there is little chance for them to do so.
Singapore Airlines introduced the Airbus A330-300 in January 2009 due to the 787 delays and until the A359 entered service. The initial 19 A333's were on 5-year leases with the option to extend further. An additional 15 A333's came in after that on 6-year leases. So far 3 A333's have been returned to the lessor. The airline has confirmed its intention to eventually replace all A330 aircraft with Airbus A350s in a medium-range configuration by 2019.
Singapore Airlines has been suffering consistently low yields in recent years due to stiff competition from premium and budget airlines. With their Boeing 787-10 packed in a dense configuration, adding the fact that SIA is stripping out items that used to be part of the fare and making customers pay a fee if they want it - for example, a preferred seat - SIA appears to be going the budget way; in other words, the Scoot way. There are rumors that Scoot's yield rates have been 20 percent higher than SIA's last year.
The first Boeing 787-10 is due for delivery from Boeing's production facility in Charleston, South Carolina, next month. Emirates will be the second largest 787-10 where they have ordered 40 of them last year in Dubai Airshow.
Singapore Airlines, Emirates, and EVA Air will be the only 787-10 operators that do not have Dreamliners in their fleet currently.
Boeing had originally planned to use four test airplanes in the -10 program. However, with the 787-10’s commonality with its smaller sibling, which became more and more apparent during the early stages of design, the Boeing team realized lack of a need for much of the testing to demonstrate the differences between the two models. For cost saving, they're only rolled out two RR powered and one GEnx-1B powered 787-10 test planes. Boeing expects certification of the GE-powered 787-10 in time for scheduled first delivery to United Airlines in the second half of the year.
In addition to the route announcement, the national carrier also signed a contract with Boeing to use electronic logbooks on it's 777 and 787 airliners recently at the Singapore Airshow.
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