Singapore Airlines' Seattle non-stops take off in June. It'll be the first time in 27 months that the carrier has served the Washington State airport non-stop

It comes after Singapore Airlines added Singapore-Vancouver-Seattle-Vancouver-Singapore in December 2021, which will end on May 31st. Vancouver will continue to be served non-stop, which means the two non-stop routes will have 6x weekly flights in total, up from the current 4x weekly.

While overall demand to Singapore remains below capacity, the recovery of Singapore Airlines is notable. Helped by a government keen to reopen its borders, it is leading the way in the Far East, including resuming a large chunk of its international network. It is in stark contrast to other Far East carriers, especially Cathay Pacific.

What's happening?

On June 2nd, Singapore Airlines will convert Singapore-Seattle to non-stop. The long, 8,040-mile (12,988km) link will have a block time to the US of 14h 45m and 16h 10m back. It is scheduled as follows, with all times local:

  • Singapore-Seattle: SQ28, 09:00-08:45 (the same day)
  • Seattle-Singapore: SQ27, 10:20-17:30+1 (the next day)

It will have 3x weekly flights through the summer, the same frequency as when it started in 2019. Barring any negative development, it anticipates a 5x weekly operation from the end of October, the start of the aviation winter season.

All flights will utilize 253-seat A350-900s, with 42 flat-bed seats in business, 24 in premium economy recliners, and 187 seats in economy.

Airbus A350, Singapore
India is Singapore Airlines' largest market to/from Australia. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

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Singapore to Seattle: a brief history

The Singapore flag carrier inaugurated Seattle in September 2019, just a few months before the world was turned upside down.

In the half-a-year or so that it operated pre-pandemic, T-100 data indicates that it carried 49,914 passengers with an average seat load factor of 82.8%. That includes the early impact of the pandemic, especially notable from February 2020, and it says little of fare performance.

As you might expect, booking data shows over half of Singapore Airlines' Seattle transit passengers connected to/from India. A much smaller quantity went to Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Australia.

The top-10 markets were Seattle (over Singapore) to Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, Delhi, Perth, and Kolkata. American will begin Seattle-Bangalore on October 29th, subject to further delays.

Nearly nine daily flights to North America

Singapore Airlines has 62 weekly departures to the US and Canada in mid-July, including non-stops and those via Europe and Northeast Asia. That's equivalent to nearly nine daily flights.

  1. Singapore-Los Angeles: 17x weekly; 10x non-stop (A350-900) and 1x daily via Tokyo Narita (B777-300ER)
  2. Singapore-San Francisco: 2x daily non-stop; A350-900
  3. Singapore-Newark: 1x daily non-stop; A350-900ULR
  4. Singapore-JFK: 2x daily; 1x daily non-stop (A350-900ULR) and 1x daily via Frankfurt (A380)
  5. Singapore-Houston: 4x weekly via Manchester; A350-900
  6. Singapore-Seattle: 3x weekly; A350-900
  7. Singapore-Vancouver: 3x weekly; A350-900

The Star Alliance member will, of course, continue to operate the world's two longest non-stop routes: the 9,537 miles (15,348km) to JFK and the 9,534 miles (15,344km) to Newark.

Have you flown Singapore Airlines to North America? Share your experience in the comments.