Singapore Airlines is to snatch the crown as the operator of the world’s shortest Airbus A380 superjumbo flight with service between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. At just 184 miles, the flight time is less than an hour and is sometimes as short as just 30 minutes.
All of the double deck A380’s in the Singapore Airlines fleet were grounded in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic but the airline is bringing some back as Singapore takes steps to reopen and live with the virus.
Designed and equipped for long-haul flights, the A380 is better suited for destinations like London and that’s exactly where Singapore Airlines will operate it’s superjumbos starting November 18. But after more than 18-months of not having stepped foot on an A380, crew need to get reacquainted with the planes.
And that’s why Singapore Airlines will operate the A380 on the ridiculously short flight between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur from November 4 to December 3.
As a comparison, Singapore Airlines would normally operate a single-aisle Boeing 737 on this route but the short rotation will allow the airline to get lots of crew retrained on the supersized A380 in a short period of time.
The airline is only selling Business and Economy tickets for these services so there is unlikely to be an opportunity to use the much-lauded Suite’s First Class.
Although Maylasia is easing its own travel restrictions, demand is likely to be muted by a lack of reciprocal travel agreement between the two countries.
Before the pandemic, Emirates operated the shortest A380 flight with a daily service between Dubai and Muscat in neighbouring Oman.
Emirates started the service, which covered just 340km and took around 40 minutes in May 2019 but suspended operations at the start of the pandemic. It’s not known when Emirates might bring back the A380 on this route and reclaim its crown.
