Singapore Airlines announces major upgrade

Well, not to be outdone by Cathay Pacific and concerned it has slipped behind the likes of Virgin Atlantic (49% owned by Singapore Airlines), BA and others in business class (the Singapore Airlines business class Spacebed is an angled lie-flat seat), Singapore Airlines (without question the leading airline in quality in the Star Alliance) has announced significant improvements to all three classes which will be launched with its first new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in December.

Singapore Airlines was meant to launch the new products as the first airline with the new Airbus A380, but that has been delayed until next year (and apparently is a further improvement on what is below). All new long-haul Singapore Airlines aircraft will have this product, and it is expected that some of the new 777s will be on routes to and from Australia and NZ. I expect within the next year Singapore Airlines will have this new product on all routes that compete with BA, Qantas, Emirates, Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa.

The biggest improvement is in Business Class (above), (no longer Raffles Class), with what is definitely the widest and longest horizontal lie-flat seats in business class ever. The proof will be in the testing, but this looks like quite possible the best business class seat in the world. The seat is 30 inches wide. There is an 15 inch AVOD screen, with 2 USB ports and essentially equipped with a miniPC (with what appears to be an "office suite" of software). The idea being you don't need to take a laptop on board, just a USB stick. Hmmmm fine until you get to the other end! Other details like luggage storage within your seat space, duvet in addition to pillow/blanket. The entertainment system has over 500 CDs and is a further step up from the already excellent Krisworld.













First Class gets a wider longer suite as well. 35 inches wide, it's easily the width of a single bed, with a 23 inch entertainment screen (and the same software/USB ports as the business class seat). This is more a larger version of what Singapore Airlines has now, than a revolutionary step forward, unlike Cathay Pacific which has essentially chosen a bed with an adjacent seat. Nevertheless, both airlines have reputations for impeccable first class service - so the battle is on - only Emirates is a rival in First, and that is the only class Emirates comes close to being competitive in.
















Economy Class has also had a spruce up, with seat redesigned to create a little more legroom, a few little compartments for glasses and personal items. A new 10 inch screen, power supply at every seat and, yes, the screen also has a mini-PC with a USB port and "office" software. So a level of computing power at every seat! Nobody can beat that, yet. Blankets and a renewed menu (for all classes) mean Singapore Airlines has evolved economy class, rather than made a big leap forward. It has 32" seat pitch, which is nothing special (Singapore Airlines has bigger seat pitch on its current 777s). Cathay's new seats are a far bigger leap forward.



















So there you go, Singapore Airlines has lifted the bar. Easily the best Business Class, excellent First Class and highly competitive Economy Class. Time for the rest of the Star Alliance to look to catch up, and I'm looking especially at United - which remains two generations behind.