Lufthansa to Introduce A380 on Flight to Singapore

German national carrier Lufthansa is to introduce the Airbus A380 on its schedules to Singapore this winter. It currently uses its ‘Super Jumbo’ aircraft on its flights from its Frankfurt hub to Beijing, Johannesburg, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo but from October 30 will start to use the type on its daily flight to Singapore Changi, replacing a Boeing 747-400 that currently serves the route. This will represent more than 50 per cent increase in weekly capacity as its A380s are configured with around 180 more seats than its current 747-400 configurations – the airline has two 747-400 arrangements depending upon markets.

Lufthansa competes with its Star Alliance partner Singapore Airlines on the route, while Qantas Airways offers a direct service with onward service to Australia. An estimated 200,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year but Lufthansa secured just a seven per cent share of this traffic, although it must be remembered that with onward connections throughout Germany and across Europe, the German flag carrier would have also carried a lot of transit traffic.

The arrival of the A380 on the service will enable the carrier to increase its share of the market. It already has the strongest yield of all the operators on the route it experience has shown that people are still willing to pay a premium for the chance to fly on the aircraft. Singapore Airlines currently uses 747-400s and 777-300ERs on its two daily flights and currently has no immediate plans to introduce its own A380s on the route.

The introduction of the A380 will mean a minor alteration to Lufthansa’s Asian schedules. Its current flight from Frankfurt continues on to Jakarta, Indonesia from Singapore, but from October 30 it will terminate. Instead, Lufthansa’s current Munich – Singapore route, operated by an Airbus A340-300, will fly on to the Indonesian city.

Schedule:

Frankfurt - Singapore
LH778 FRA2205 – 1655+1SIN 388 D
LH779 SIN2355 – 0555+1FRA 388 D

Munich – Singapore - Jakarta
LH790 MUC2130 – 1650+1SIN1800+1 – 1850+1CGK 343 D
LH791 CGK2005 – 2245SIN2359 – 0610+1MUC 343 D