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Tag: South Korea

Singapore Airlines to take over Silkair’s Singapore-Busan services

The daily A330-300 service will see an increase of 76% in seat capacity between the two cities.

Singapore Airlines will operate an A330-300 service between Singapore and Busan, taking over the existing SilkAir service from 28 October 2019. The transfer will enable Singapore Airlines to increase seat capacity on the route by 76% to meet the growing travel demand.

SIA will operate flights to Busan four times per week, maintaining SilkAir’s current flight frequency. The revised schedule will be as follow:

Route	Flight	Departure	Arrival	Flight time	Days	Aircraft
SIN-PUS	SQ616	2310	0635(+1)	6h 45m	Mon, Fri, Sat	Airbus A330-300
SIN-PUS	SQ616	2310	0630(+1)	6h 40m	Wed	Airbus A330-300
PUS-SIN	SQ615	0800	1325	6h 25m	Tue, Thu, Sat	Airbus A330-300
PUS-SIN	SQ615	0810	1325	6h 15m	Sun	Airbus A330-300

The route will be served with the A330-300 aircraft with 285 seats, consisting 30 Business Class and 255 Economy Class seats. The A330s can accommodate up to 123 more passengers per flight than SilkAir’s 162-seat Boeing 737-800s which currently serve the Singapore-Busan route.

If you are familiar with SIA’s A330, you will know that these are the old 2009 regional business class seats in a 2-2-2 layout, which features angled beds.

Boeing 737 MAX 8

Silkair announced Busan as a new destination back in February 2019 which was supposed to be operated by the ill-fated Boeing 737 MAX 8s. However, the grounding of the fleet since March 2019 meant that the service was operated by the older Boeing 737-800s instead.

Given the range of a typical Boeing 737-800 is about 6+ hours, the Singapore-Busan sector is clearly within the upper limits of the range. Depending on the cargo loads for the flight and other factors such as weather, there may be load restrictions on the flight, which will definitely hamper commercial viability.

With Singapore Airlines taking over the service with the A330 (which is due for retirement by 2020), the move will free up some Boeing 737-800s for SilkAir to use for the upcoming year end Northern Winter peak.

13 September 19

SilkAir offers flights from Singapore-Busan from May 2019

SilkAir has announced yet another exciting new destination on its network, this time to Seoul’s second largest city: Busan.

This is SilkAir’s first destination in South Korea, less than two years after it launched its service to Hiroshima. As with the Hiroshima service, the Singapore-Busan service will be operated using the Boeing 737 MAX 8.

The service will commence from 1 May 2019, offering four flights a week to Busan from Singapore. SilkAir will also be the only airline offering non-stop services between the two cities.

The schedule

The outbound flight from Singapore operates overnight and arrives into Busan in the morning, while the return flight departs Busan in the morning.

Route	Flight	Departure	Arrival	Flight time	Days	Aircraft
SIN-PUS	MI876	2315	0700(+1)	6h 45m	Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat	Boeing 737 MAX 8
PUS-SIN	MI875	0800	1415	7h 15m	Tue	Boeing 737 MAX 8
PUS-SIN	MI875	0830	1415	6h 45m	Thu, Sat, Sun	Boeing 737 MAX 8

The aircraft

*SilkAir Boeing 737 MAX 8 Business Class*

The service between Singapore and Busan will be operated with SilkAir’s newest Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in a two-class configuration, with 12 Business Class seats and 144 in Economy Class.

Thoughts

The integration with Singapore Airlines from next year is obviously changing the way SIA Group is looking at its network proposition in this awkward transitional phase.

SilkAir didn’t used to venture beyond Southeast Asia given its brand as a ‘regional carrier’, but in recent years there have been slow but sure expansion into further destinations, including a more regular Cairns offering, Hiroshima and now Busan.

And surely after the (seemingly) successful launch of Hiroshima and more recently, the news on new lie-flat business class seats selected for the narrow body aircraft, I expect SilkAir to continue to introduce more destinations over the next two years.

22 February 19