Singapore Airlines Cutting Size Of First Class Cabins In Half

As I wrote about last May, Singapore Airlines will be introducing a premium economy product throughout much of their longhaul fleet.

Premium economy will gradually be introduced throughout their longhaul fleet starting with their Airbus A380s and Boeing 777-300ERs (eventually it will also be introduced on their A350s, once they start taking delivery of those).

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Singapore Airlines’ current 777-300ER first class seat

While airlineroute.net has all the details of the flights scheduled to have premium economy, the most concerning news is regarding the implications of premium economy on cabin layouts.

Singapore Airlines’ current 777-300ER business class cabin

Singapore 777-300ER configuration with premium economy

Here’s a chart with the change in capacity on the 777-300ERs with premium economy:

So while business class capacity is going up by six, first class capacity is going down by four. That’s right, Singapore Airlines is cutting the size of their 777 first class cabins in half. That’s huge, especially given that it’s the backbone of their fleet.

Singapore Airlines’ current 777-300ER first class cabin

Singapore has long been generous with releasing first class award space at the saver level to members of their own KrisFlyer program. However, as of late they’ve been suite stingy with releasing A380 Suites Class availability.

So first class on the 777-300ER has been a fairly safe bet, though it looks like that will soon change. I’m guessing long term that for the most part first class awards on the 777 won’t be bookable at the saver level far in advance.

For all the dates and routes I checked, I don’t see a single date that has first class available at the saver level on one of the new 777s with just four first class seats. They all “waitlist.”

From Singapore’s perspective I totally get it. On the 777-300ER business class is so good that it almost cannibalizes their first class. In terms of the hard product it’s not that different.

Singapore Airlines’ 777-300ER business class seat

So presumably not only is the demand for their 777-300ER first class not there, but beyond that they can make the product more exclusive by making it just one row.

TAM’s old first class had just one row with four seats

Singapore A380 configuration with premium economy

Singapore has two A380 configurations. One exclusively has business class on the upper deck, with a total of 86 business class seats:

Meanwhile the other configuration has some economy class seats at the back of the upper deck, as it only has 60 business class seats:

Fortunately on the A380 we’re not seeing a reduction in premium cabin capacity, but rather are seeing 66 economy class seats being removed in favor of 36 premium economy seats.

Singapore Airlines’ A380 Suites Class

Bottom line

Will this have huge long term implications for those looking to redeem KrisFlyer miles? Yes.

But at the same time I’d probably do the same if I were Singapore Airlines. They have a darn good business class product on their 777-300ERs, and the difference between the hard product in the two cabins is marginal. Clearly the (paid) demand for first class wasn’t there, so they’re able to get rid of the seats that weren’t profitably being filled, while still maintaining the product for those that are willing to pay cash.

On the plus side, I’m happy to see that premium cabin capacity hasn’t changed on the A380. And beyond that, it will likely be several years before Singapore’s entire longhaul fleet features premium economy, so first class capacity won’t be changing systemwide overnight.

What do you make of Singapore Airlines adding premium economy and cutting the size of their first class cabins in half?