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Singapore Airlines offers one of the most delightfully flawless premium travel experiences in the world and is essentially just as good as any of the other contenders for the world’s best airline. In reality, the carrier’s seats in most classes are hardly ground-breaking, and are, in some aspects, even outdated, but where Singapore Airlines shines is with the quality of its service, as well as the catering, and ground experience.
Perhaps the area where Singapore Airlines excels the most, however, is in first class. With its Airbus A380s, the carrier claims that it sells a travel class above first class, titling it ‘Singapore Suites,’ and the hard product on these planes is indeed groundbreaking. In addition, its 22-strong Boeing 777-300ER fleet features an older first class product more similar to what you’d find on other carriers. Singapore Airlines is continuing to invest in this cabin, even though first class has generally disappeared.
Singapore Airlines’ First Class Offering
On all 22 Boeing 777-300ERs, Singapore Airlines offers four first class suites. These seats are relatively old, lacking features like privacy doors, but are incredibly spacious. aeroLOPA shows that these seats are pitched at 81 inches (205.74 cm), and come with a seat width of 35 inches (88.9 cm), along with a 24-inch (60.96 cm) display. The seat is excellent, but fairly similar to first class suites offered by many other airlines, and the technology is no longer cutting-edge.
The seats on the 12-strong Airbus A380 fleet are the more exciting ones. Singapore Airlines brands the first class cabin on these planes as ‘Singapore Suites,’ and the most striking feature is that the six suites are installed two-abreast with a single aisle. Etihad Airways is the only other airline to configure its A380 first class, branded as the First Apartments, with a single aisle. The Singapore Suites, however, are more spacious and do not feature a staggered design.
There are just six Singapore Suites on each A380, and each takes up 50 square feet (4.64 square meters) of space, and includes a swiveling recliner, a fold-away bed, and a 32-inch (81.28 centimeter) screen. The Singapore Suites are also equipped with privacy doors, and for four of the six Singapore Suites, the center privacy partition can be lowered, connecting the two suites. With this, Singapore Airlines also offers a full double-bed, the largest in the airline industry.
The Problem With International First Class Today
Historically, first class was the premium airline cabin, whereas economy was the standard travel class. As airline interiors evolved, first class became more luxurious, while economy instead became more space-efficient. This growing divide created space for a mid-market option, commonly known as business class. While first class was always more luxurious, business class would soon adopt many of the traits first associated with first class, such as lie-flat seating and direct aisle access.
In 2000, British Airways introduced the world’s first fully lie-flat business class seat, and, in 2003, Virgin Atlantic introduced the world’s first business class seat with direct aisle access. In 2014, JetBlue introduced the world’s first business class seat with privacy doors in select seats, while 2017 saw Qatar Airways and Delta Air Lines offer privacy doors on all seats. With this, many modern business class seats tick the main boxes that once defined the luxury of a first class seat.
Modern business class is good enough for most premium travelers, and it’s less expensive, too, which has eroded the market for first class. In addition, first class is significantly more expensive for airlines to operate due to high soft product costs, such as catering and chauffeur services, often being sold at a loss. As such, many airlines have discontinued first class cabins in recent years, such as 
American Airlines, while other airlines have scaled back their availability.
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How Singapore Airlines Makes First Class Work
Worldwide, only a handful of areas have a high enough concentration of business travelers and wealthy individuals to justify a high number of first class seats, but Singapore is one of those areas. The city-state is extremely wealthy and has high business demand, with enough premium passengers traveling between it and other major cities to warrant selling first class. In addition, Singapore Airlines is well-located to capture wealthy connecting traffic between Asia, Australia, and Europe.
Singapore Airlines’ target market is wealthy and concentrated in a single area. This is the opposite situation of US airlines, for instance. Despite being the world’s wealthiest nation in many metrics, the US can’t support a local airline offering international first class in part because demand is spread out across a huge landmass, fragmenting demand on individual routes. American Airlines, the last US airline to sell international first class, has already begun reconfiguring its Boeing 777-300ER fleet.
|
Configurations (Per aeroLOPA) |
Flagship First |
Flagship Business |
Premium Economy |
Economy |
Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
American Airlines Boeing 777-300ER (Current) |
Eight |
52 |
28 |
216 |
304 |
|
American Airlines Boeing 777-300ER (Future) |
Zero |
70 |
44 |
216 |
330 |
Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, and SWISS are in a similar scenario to Singapore Airlines, in that they have a single hub or two hubs with high premium demand. The same is true of Cathay Pacific, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, and Korean Air, four of Singapore Airlines’ closest competitors. Although demand for first class has shrunken in many markets, it still exists in meaningful numbers. However, it’s now becoming a niche product rather than a mainstream offering.
Singapore Airlines’ Selling Proposition
Today, Singapore Airlines is one of the world’s most famous airline brands, and Singapore is well known as an economic powerhouse in Asia, but this level of global awareness and name recognition took decades to build. Developing an airline with a powerful connecting network and an excellent onboard product drove interest in the city, partially driving the success of Singapore as a country, in addition to the airline’s success.
The 21st century saw the rise of the Gulf carriers, which have replicated this same strategy to draw attention to their home cities, with Emirates being the best example. Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways have focused more on their hard product, as opposed to Singapore Airlines’ heavier focus on soft product. Although it’s not located in the same region, it does compete with the Gulf carriers for similar connecting flows, so it has been innovating heavily in its hard product as well.
|
Product |
Debut |
Aircraft |
Layout |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Etihad Airways First Apartments |
2014 |
Airbus A380-800 (Seven) |
1-1 |
|
Emirates Game Changer First Class |
2017 |
Boeing 777-300ER (Nine) |
1-1-1 |
|
Singapore Airlines Singapore Suites |
2017 |
Airbus A380-800 (12) |
1-1 |
The Singapore Suites are the world’s largest and arguably the world’s best first class suites, rivaled only by the Etihad First Apartments and Emirates’ Game Changer Suites on the Boeing 777. Not only does this make the airline competitive, but it creates a halo effect that drives interest in the rest of the carrier’s products. In addition, although Singapore Airlines’ business class is aging, it still offers exceptional comfort and space, further driving interest in the brand.
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More Investment In International First Class
Singapore Airlines’ relationship with its international first class cabin is becoming an industry-wide trend. The airlines that can’t sustain it are dropping it, but those that can continue to invest in the cabin and are experiencing substantial success with the product. As some examples, Emirates offers first class on nearly all of its planes. Air France is adding La Premiere onto more of its Boeing 777-300ERs.
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways originally planned to eliminate first class, but now plans to retain the cabin on some future Boeing 777-9 deliveries. Singapore Airlines has orders for 31 Boeing 777-9s, which are expected to partially replace the carrier’s Airbus A380 and Boeing 777-300ER fleets. These planes will come with a new first class cabin, although patent filings indicate that the new seats will be more similar to the current 777 first class.
That is to say that they are set to feature a four-abreast layout with privacy doors and a center double suite. In addition, these seats will be retrofitted onto the carrier’s seven Airbus A350-900ULRs, meaning that Singapore Airlines will be increasing the number of first class seats in its network.
The general strategy among airlines that have successfully retained first class is to position it as a luxury experience, rather than as a more comfortable means of transport. Singapore Airlines has the customer base to support first class, and its brand is centered around high-end travel. While first class is being removed by some airlines, you can be sure that Singapore Airlines will continue to offer these seats as perhaps the best travel experience in the airline industry.
