Singapore Airlines will soon be cutting one of its fifth freedom flights to the United States, which is a shame. I can’t say I’m that surprised, though, since this route has seemed questionable.
In this post:
Singapore Airlines suspends Houston fifth freedom flights
Since 2016, Singapore Airlines has been operating a route from Singapore (SIN) to Manchester (MAN) to Houston (IAH). Currently, the route operates 5x weekly with an Airbus A350-900, with the following schedule:
SQ52 Singapore to Manchester departing 2:25AM arriving 9:10AM
SQ52 Manchester to Houston departing 10:40AM arriving 2:30PM
SQ51 Houston to Manchester departing 6:45PM arriving 9:40AM (+1 day)
SQ51 Manchester to Singapore departing 11:15AM arriving 7:40AM (+1 day)
This route has operated both to serve the market between Singapore and Houston, and also as a fifth freedom flight, allowing passengers to travel exclusively between the United States and the United Kingdom.
Unfortunately the sector between Manchester and Houston will be suspended as of April 1, 2025. While it’s not being marketed as a permanent cut, there’s no indication of if or when the route will return. The route between Singapore and Manchester will continue to operate as before.
With this update, Singapore Airlines will go from having three fifth freedom flights to the United States, to only having two. The airline will continue to fly between New York (JFK) and Frankfurt (FRA), as well as between Los Angeles (LAX) and Tokyo (NRT). This complements the carrier’s nonstop service between the United States and Singapore.
Is this Singapore Airlines route cut surprising?
Singapore Airlines is a conservative airline when it comes to growth, and it tends to only stay in markets where it’s succeeding. That being said, I’ve long found this route to Houston to be questionable, and am not surprised to see it cut.
For some context, prior to 2016, Singapore Airlines’ service between Singapore and Houston was operated via Moscow (DME). That route seemed logical enough, given that Houston and Moscow are cities that have a connection in terms of oil and energy. However, as the economy in Moscow got worse, Singapore Airlines decided to reroute the service via Manchester.
That seemed quite random, frankly, and even more so when you consider how Singapore Airlines has increased its nonstop service between the United States and Singapore. There are two main reasons I’m not surprised to see this route being cut:
- For those traveling between Houston and Singapore, the travel time from Houston to Singapore is comparable via Los Angeles or San Francisco (compared to via Manchester)
- I can’t imagine the Houston to Manchester market is that huge, especially on a year-round basis; if it had significant demand, you’d think it’s a route that United would operate, and United has a huge advantage, given its transatlantic joint venture and loyal customer base in the area
So my assumption has been that the route is just performing okay(ish), with a moderate amount of demand between Houston and Manchester, plus substantial demand between Houston and Singapore. Furthermore, obviously Singapore Airlines is committed to the Manchester to Singapore market.
I think the only thing that really surprises me here is that Singapore Airlines is waiting until after the winter season to cut this service. You’d think that this is a route that would be cut ahead of the winter season, when demand between Houston and Manchester is especially weak.
Bottom line
As of April 2025, Singapore Airlines is discontinuing its route between Manchester and Houston. The route has been operated since 2016, and replaced the route between Moscow and Houston. Singapore Airlines will maintain service between Singapore and Manchester, so clearly it was just the fifth freedom route that was performing poorly.
What do you make of Singapore Airlines cutting its Houston route?
I’m extremely disappointed. My family lives in Scotland and I live in Houston. We fly this route several times a year because it’s so affordable. We drive 3.5hrs to Manchester for the flight! It’s going to be so disappointing to not have a good direct flight from Houston to the northern half of the UK.
Agreed, great flight, we too used it since its inception. Premium economy is by far the cheapest out there for this type of routing. Great service… only downside, chaos at manchester…. Will miss this service greatly, nothing comes close… wouldn’t touch an American carrier with a big stick, as they say!
Departing Singapore at 2:25 AM, and arriving into Houston at 2:30 P.M. to face U.S. customs and immigration rigamarole?!? Sounds like a schedule doomed for failure that would lead to awful, awful jet lag.
I suspect most folks traveling between Houston and Singapore do enjoy a nice layover - if only for an hour or so, but perhaps a day or two for others - at a city en route. It just wouldn't be in...
Departing Singapore at 2:25 AM, and arriving into Houston at 2:30 P.M. to face U.S. customs and immigration rigamarole?!? Sounds like a schedule doomed for failure that would lead to awful, awful jet lag.
I suspect most folks traveling between Houston and Singapore do enjoy a nice layover - if only for an hour or so, but perhaps a day or two for others - at a city en route. It just wouldn't be in Manchester though. Dubai? Cool. Tokyo? Great sushi, sure. Manchester?!? What was SQ thinking? DME made sense years ago, but after that I just never understood the rationale behind the MAN stop. Even something like BRU would seem to make far more sense.
I flew IAH-MAN (and the reverse) last month with the family for summer vacation, because at ~$650pp RT it was about half the cost of the next cheapest direct flight to Europe. The flights were almost completely full both ways, but it was a good experience even in economy with the above average entertainment system and free WiFi. Definitely disappointed to see this option going away.
Singapore Airlines have been trying to incentivise me to fly between Manchester and Houston for the past few years. At least they made an effort. The problem is that none of the offers were even remotely appealing. Neither the destination nor the prices worked for me.
I’ve wanted to take this flight for ages but just hadn’t made it happen yet.
That's why they're taking it away.
SQ should move the IAH flight to a different European hub. I'd gladly take it over UA.
It was Moscow before Manchester if I remember correctly.
Delta could’ve made this route work!
My wife and I used to use this flight quite frequently as it was one of the few 1 stop options to MAN from the US once UA cut their EWR route. Shame to see it go. I think the only option now is Virgin through ATL for us OKC folk.
IAH-MAN struck me as an odd connection and also adds quite a bit of flying time.
IAH-ICN-SIN is only 1 mile out of the way and would seem a lot more logical. Or better yet, IAH-YVR-SIN, YVR-SIN should be a large market and could compete with Air Canada monopoly on the route. YVR only adds 6 miles to total distance.
I’m a sucker for taking this or the FRA fifth freedom flights to get to Italy often. FRA is great since Lufthansa can get you to there from basically anywhere
Big issue for lots of Europe is that MAN is a horrendous connection spot. Too many budget vacation airlines and nearly impossible to book a same-ticket connection
I really wanted to take this flight but the biggest problem is that there's no connecting feed to other cities. Even though United flies multiple LAX IAH flights daily they would never sell you the onward ticket to MAN on a codeshare (and neither would SQ) or the return. So you are basically limited to IAH which is a shame.
Why not just get make it nonstop and use a ULR?
Because while the A359ULR can do SIN-IAH, it'd struggle on IAH-SIN.
The latter is within its brochure range, but would face significant headwinds in winter which would render it rather unreliable.
Same problem UA had when it tried to fly LAX-SIN with 787-9s, and eventually moved the flight to SFO as the 300ish miles saved, made a measurable difference in available payload during winter.
I have a flight booked on this route in May 2025, and just logged in and everything seems normal still so far. I guess they haven't got around to cancelling reservations yet?
What usually happens in this, just a full refund, or?
Have they cancelled it yet? I had a flight April 30 that I moved to March 30 because I was worried that many others would do the same if I waited for them to cancel.
Got the email this morning stating it was cancelled.
What did they give you for options? I didn’t want my miles to be stuck with SQ which is also why I wanted to take the flight when they still offered.
Surprised it took this long to happen.
UA has been destroying SQ on capturing IAH-SIN O&D (via their SFO-SIN nonstops), which is one of the big reasons their second SFO-SIN exists.
(the other being that their 789s cannot operate LAX-SIN reliably in winter, without significantly shorting payload, despite their early attempts to fly it)
I'm surprised SQ stuck it out this long.
Houston is a main energy hub, the world capital of energy. Now Moscow? Since when? Worked in oil and gas for twenty years, never heard anyone going to Moscow. There was never a market for Houston-Moscow, that's why it was changed to Manchester.
I thought Chevron had some sort of JV over there, but I could be wrong. Still, I never knew of much oil business from Houston going to Russia.
Did you work in technical or business areas?
Oil in Russia is nowhere near Moscow. But all of the oil business people and other relevant decision makers have always been in Moscow. And the way these people used to spend money, DME-IAH was probably profitable due to Russian oil managers paying cash for non-stop SQ J tickets to Houston. Distance is too long for private jets of middle managers :)
So demand could have been...
Did you work in technical or business areas?
Oil in Russia is nowhere near Moscow. But all of the oil business people and other relevant decision makers have always been in Moscow. And the way these people used to spend money, DME-IAH was probably profitable due to Russian oil managers paying cash for non-stop SQ J tickets to Houston. Distance is too long for private jets of middle managers :)
So demand could have been from Moscow, not from Houston. That demand dried up years ago.
There actually was a market when the route started almost 2 decades ago. Premium cabin was full and the back very light for a long period.
Then the energy market crashed.
Load for oil industry never recovered like the industry.
I do know oil people still go to SIN.
I guess that's why they shifted to MAN and reduce frequencies rather than eliminate this route.
But there are many alternatives over SQ.
Unless IAH-SIN nonstop can be operated economically, SQ is better off placing a code share on UA to connect to one of its West Coast or Euro-SIN flights and calling it a day.
I hope they replace it w/ something else...MCO/MIA/ATL/ORD to SIN via ZRH/BCN/FCO? I know there won't be a lot of United connectivity on the US end outside of ORD but maybe seasonal demand (both summer & winter) with the southern hubs..
I have a feeling this is connected to the talks of GVA airport officials with SQ during the last weeks. SQ would like to operate SIN-GVA due to GVA being a rich commodity hub, so perhaps SIN-GVA-IAH could be doable or they use the planes for SIN-GVA only.
Well this is super disappointing as I already have a business class flight booked for June 2025. Now my points will get stuck with Singapore. Anyone think they’ll open up a flight from IAH to anywhere else in Europe,
Darn. Just booked two J tickets from Singapore to Houston via Manchester last week with Aeroplan miles for next summer. How do you think they will handle this? Will the itenary just be canceled or will singapore allow me to move to a different flight to the usa? Do I call Singapore or Aeroplan?
Try ask aeroplan and ask them report you on EK
In my (thankfully, limited) experience Aeroplan give you three options:
1. Full refund without any fees
2. Re-booking on any other available award flight (including partners), also without fees. But you are responsible for any difference in award cost, both miles and dollars.
3. Protecting you on Air Canada operated flights (not code shares).
Once you agree to one of these options, you get no more freebies unless there is another cancellation. At...
In my (thankfully, limited) experience Aeroplan give you three options:
1. Full refund without any fees
2. Re-booking on any other available award flight (including partners), also without fees. But you are responsible for any difference in award cost, both miles and dollars.
3. Protecting you on Air Canada operated flights (not code shares).
Once you agree to one of these options, you get no more freebies unless there is another cancellation. At least that's how it worked out when United cancelled the LHR-BOS flight that was the last leg of a CGK-SIN-LHR-BOS award (Aeroplan kept CGK-SIN-LHR on SQ and added LHR-YYZ-BOS on AC. No hotel provided for the overnight connection that was not needed on original ticket), and when Turkish cancelled all IST-TLV flights, breaking an SFO-IST-TLV award (replaced by SFO-YYZ-TLV on AC).
And you have to call Aeroplan. If you call Singapore, they will refer you to Air Canada, who will in turn refer you to Aeroplan.
I believe part of the attraction of Manchester was that it could also offer some connections to Aberdeen (another important energy market) and other domestic points on Loganair . However the connecting and transit facility at Manchester never reopened after COVID and Manchester is well known for it's terrible user experience so I imagine this demand just hasn't been enough from the Houston end as well
That makes a lot of sense. I'd always wondered how Manchester fit into the oil business. Aberdeen connections were probably the reason. And yes Manchester is horrid to transfer through now. So I imagine having done it once you wouldn't do it again!
A lot of the IAH-ABZ business flows over Schiphol on KL given the proximity of AMS and the oil industry.
Far better connecting experience too
Wouldn't it work way better if it was via LHR, not MAN?
LHR is slot restricted. And LHR does not make as much money as you'd think given the excessive amounts of competition.
No way they'd use an LHR slot pair for an IAH tag, when they couldn't even get all of the slots that they wanted to operate roundtrip LHR to SIN itself.
They decided to open Gatwick as a remedy, similar to pre-Covid Cathay and mainland Chinese carriers.
It was probably about half full in J when I took it this spring. I'm told there is actually some oil/energy work in Manchester, but clearly not enough to sustain the route.
Shocked they just don't pick a different European city like Zurich, Milan or something along those lines. IAH does not have many flights to Europe considering the size.
They should have made it go through ZRH/Zurich instead of MAN/Manchester.
While not the same, back when AA codeshared with Swiss, their DFW-ZRH did extremely well. Helped that they ran a light and very premium configured B777 on this route.
I think SQ already steals enough thunder from LH Group with the FRA routing.
The IAD route with stopover was justified by oil and gas business (formerly Moscow, then Manchester).
Routing is not nice also, considering they avoid much of Russia Ukraine and have a narrow middle east corridor.
The Euro stops don't make much sense anymore especially since Russia avoidance and "yields are low".
Would have been interesting to see them attack AF on the JFK route.
Expect the flight number to change to the SQ3xx series to reflect the fact that SIN–MAN will terminate in Europe instead of carrying on to the US, which is implied by its current 2-digit flight number, which is used for US routes.
Thank you for the post, I did not know this type of flights even existed, let alone that SQ is flying from Europe to the US.
I am excited to learn about SQ flight from FRA to JFK, may use it in the future.
Doesn't come as a surprise given SIN is horribly positioned to do U.S. flights. If flying to East or South Asia, SIN is a detour; similarly, IAH-SIN is a thousand plus more miles than IAH-SYD. 20 years ago SQ would have been a good option; today, connecting flyers are better served by EVA or ANA to East Asia, the ME3 to South Asia, etc. And for O&D -- as someone who does fly to SIN,...
Doesn't come as a surprise given SIN is horribly positioned to do U.S. flights. If flying to East or South Asia, SIN is a detour; similarly, IAH-SIN is a thousand plus more miles than IAH-SYD. 20 years ago SQ would have been a good option; today, connecting flyers are better served by EVA or ANA to East Asia, the ME3 to South Asia, etc. And for O&D -- as someone who does fly to SIN, given SQ standards dropping quite far post-COVID, have seen a lot of people prefer to fly the ME3 (See Etihad bringing the A380 to SIN a few days ago). So really no market left for this kind of flight
To clarify: Etihad announced it would bring the A380 to SIN & this was covered on OMAAT a few days ago. This will start Feb 2025
"...given SQ standards dropping quite far post-COVID..."
How so?
Other airlines, Qatar Airways in particular, have been stealing SQ’s thunder and taking advantage of SQ’s less-than-Qsuite business-class product. That’s one of the biggest reasons I can think of (and the severely delayed 777X with its new premium products no doubt cops much of the blame), though there are no doubt others, like the constant paring back of amenities — especially the food containers on regional routes.
@TravelinWilly, @VTCIE's post hits it on the nail. SQ business on their 77W/359 is the 2013 J seat, which is now a decade plus old; Qsuites and other products have far surpassed it. And "constant paring back of amenities" is a great way to put it -- regardless of class, passengers get less now on SQ than they did in 2019.
If you are flying IAH-SIN or SIN-IAH, you'd have to make a stop...
@TravelinWilly, @VTCIE's post hits it on the nail. SQ business on their 77W/359 is the 2013 J seat, which is now a decade plus old; Qsuites and other products have far surpassed it. And "constant paring back of amenities" is a great way to put it -- regardless of class, passengers get less now on SQ than they did in 2019.
If you are flying IAH-SIN or SIN-IAH, you'd have to make a stop anyway; it's more attractive to fly QR, have Qsuites and more amenities, and stop in DOH, rather than fly SQ with a worse product.
Thank you VT-CIE and quromcall for the succinct replies.
I've only flown SQ long haul on two segments (SFO-SIN-MEL), and have to say the service was great, but the seats sort of sucked, especially because I'm tall.
Otherwise I'm only on SQ in first (whether the 777 or the A380 suites) and I find both to be top notch service-wise, though they both have their hard product challenges.
Sure, but don't forget that QR suites are a Russian roulette and they're not installing it consistently all over their planes. There are 6 or 7 business class types on QR, and if you are unlucky, you might end up in their old 2-2-2 biz class. SQ biz is outdated, but at least their service is consistent and the crews are way much friendlier.
Definitely not to the same extent that QR does equipment swaps (QR needs to fix that!), but SQ has also been doing a LOT of A380 downgauges recently. In the last 5 days alone: after extending A380 service to PVG last month, SQ dropped it for the entire winter season, pulled the A380 from HKG, and shuffled A380 LHR flights. A local blog begun its most recent article with “It seems like hardly a week...
Definitely not to the same extent that QR does equipment swaps (QR needs to fix that!), but SQ has also been doing a LOT of A380 downgauges recently. In the last 5 days alone: after extending A380 service to PVG last month, SQ dropped it for the entire winter season, pulled the A380 from HKG, and shuffled A380 LHR flights. A local blog begun its most recent article with “It seems like hardly a week goes by without Singapore Airlines tinkering with the flight schedules for its flagship Airbus A380 aircraft” and that’s basically where we are now. For many of us A380 Suites is a top product and scheduling is getting as unreliable as Qsuites for that