Singapore Airlines has taken a conservative growth strategy over the past several years. Virtually the only long haul growth we’ve seen from them recently has been their A350-900ULR flights from Singapore to Los Angeles, Newark, and San Francisco, as well as their new route to Seattle.
Beyond that, we only very rarely see new long haul routes from the airline. With that in mind, Singapore Airlines has just announced a new long haul flight.
Singapore Airlines will begin flying 4x weekly between Singapore and Brussels as of October 25, 2020. The new flight will operate with the following schedule:
SQ304 Singapore to Brussels departing 11:55PM arriving 6:50AM (+1 day)
SQ303 Brussels to Singapore departing 11:55AM arriving 6:55AM (+1 day)
The ~6,560 mile flight will operate from Singapore on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays, and from Brussels on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
Singapore Airlines will use a standard A350-900 for the route, featuring 253 seats, including 42 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 187 economy seats.
Singapore Airlines’ A350-900 premium economy
Tickets for the new flight are expected to go on sale as of tomorrow, Tuesday, December 17, 2019.
Technically this is actually a route relaunch for Singapore Airlines, as the airline flew to Brussels until 2003. Brussels has done quite well with flights to North & Southeast Asia in recent years. At this point Brussels has flights on ANA to Tokyo Narita, on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong, on Hainan to Beijing and Shenzhen, and on Thai to Bangkok.
Cathay Pacific A350-900
Brussels is of course a Brussels Airlines hub, so Singapore Airlines will have some connectivity at the airport thanks to their mutual Star Alliance affiliation. That being said, I’m not sure there’s all that much traffic that can be captured here that couldn’t be captured through Frankfurt, Munich, etc.
Brussels Airlines is also in the Star Alliance
Brussels Airlines is incredibly strong in Africa, though for the most part Brussels wouldn’t be a logical connecting point between Africa and Southeast Asia.
What do you make of Singapore Airlines’ new flight to Brussels?
Back in the early 90s, SQ flew JFK-BRU-SIN, same plane service (flew this route in August ’91). So, technically, the BRU-SIN route is just a restored portion of the route.
@Marco
Yes, Bruxelles the headquarters of the EUSSR are located in Bruxelles. But that is not positive news at all...
What are SQ A350ULR routes(only LAX & EWR)?
This is an excellent move by SIA. Bruxelles is the political capital of Europe, and on so many levels represent the heart of the European soul - good or bad. The quagmires of the failed nation-state that is Belgium are totally transcended by the new cosmopolitan realities in Europe and globally, which BRU is in a prime position to realize and take advantage of. And geographically and operationally, it makes for a great hub for...
This is an excellent move by SIA. Bruxelles is the political capital of Europe, and on so many levels represent the heart of the European soul - good or bad. The quagmires of the failed nation-state that is Belgium are totally transcended by the new cosmopolitan realities in Europe and globally, which BRU is in a prime position to realize and take advantage of. And geographically and operationally, it makes for a great hub for western Europe. The fact that a major - and at the same time remote - carrier such as SIA is returning I think says alot about where BRU is today and where it's headed tomorrow.
SQ should also consider flying to other destinations such as Madrid, Edinburgh etc.
Wonder when SQ will start flying to Madrid?
@Phil: it is indeed a relaunch. I flew with them around 2001, and it was a fantastic 'direct' flight to Sydney (one stop in Singapore but the same plane continued to Sydney). This was a 747. The return flight was even stranger: Sydney - Singapore - Paris - Brussels (in a 747 for a barely 40 minute flight!! with a crew change in Paris!!). I loved that trip since they already had good food, personal...
@Phil: it is indeed a relaunch. I flew with them around 2001, and it was a fantastic 'direct' flight to Sydney (one stop in Singapore but the same plane continued to Sydney). This was a 747. The return flight was even stranger: Sydney - Singapore - Paris - Brussels (in a 747 for a barely 40 minute flight!! with a crew change in Paris!!). I loved that trip since they already had good food, personal in-flight entertainment screens and great crew. I'm excited to see them come back to Brussels!
The headline should be 'Singapore Airlines relaunches flights to Brussels' because they've done it before in the late 90s/early00s. They used a 772 and it was one of the first long haul services they operated with it rather than the 747 which was the backbone of their longhaul fleet.
My memory is it was a casualty of 9/11.
I think Tel Aviv will be off the table if Elal has a successful Australia launch.
Of course it is important for Singapore Airlines to serve the capital of the EUSSR.
It is more and more becoming the center of power
Waiting for SQ to start flying to Chicago.
I heard Tel Aviv is under consideration.
With NATO and EU headquarters located in Brussels, I am sure this played a part in adding the flight. If you look at the timing of the flight it appears to be timed for the work week in Brussels.
Brussels is the EU capital, so presumably there's a fair bit of government traffic that's willing to pay a premium to avoid connecting in FRA or MUC.
According to Singapore Airlines' announcement (https://www.singaporeair.com/de_DE/de/media-centre/press-release/article/?q=en_UK/2017/July-September/jr1617-170928) of the JV with Lufthansa back in 2017, Belgium is covered by this JV. In the end, it'll give those of us travelling from non-hubs more options/flight times to connect onwards to Singapore - not a bad thing.
(Side note, it's curios how restrictive the scope of this JV is. It only covers those countries with Lufthansa hubs [Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium], Singapore and Australia. I'm curios why...
According to Singapore Airlines' announcement (https://www.singaporeair.com/de_DE/de/media-centre/press-release/article/?q=en_UK/2017/July-September/jr1617-170928) of the JV with Lufthansa back in 2017, Belgium is covered by this JV. In the end, it'll give those of us travelling from non-hubs more options/flight times to connect onwards to Singapore - not a bad thing.
(Side note, it's curios how restrictive the scope of this JV is. It only covers those countries with Lufthansa hubs [Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium], Singapore and Australia. I'm curios why not more of Europe and South East Asia was included)
They also just started flying to Seattle in September.
A lot of growth to be expected from BRU due to limited growth in AMS.