Singapore Airlines’ new B787-10 to fly to Perth next

Just a few weeks back, it was announced that Osaka would be the inaugural destination for Singapore Airlines’ new Boeing 787-10 aircraft. Hot off the press today, Perth was announced as the next destination to be served by the Boeing 787-10. Currently, this route is serviced by their 2-class Boeing 777-200/ Airbus 330-300 aircraft with business class laid out in a 2-2-2 configuration and economy in a 3-3-3/2-4-2 layout respectively. (Edit : Ian has pointed out that SQ213/226 uses the reconfigured Boeing 777-200ER with 2006 J product, thanks Ian!)

When the Boeing 787-10 enters service with SQ, it’ll be in a 2-class configuration with business class laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration with the new regional seats and economy class laid out in a 3-3-3 configuration, with the seats in economy being the same as those on the new A380.

Here’s the business class seat that’s currently plying the Singapore-Perth route :

and here’s what the purported new regional business class seats would look like on the 787-10 :

Flights scheduled to begin in May 2018 , award space excellent

Checking day by day on the SQ website (I swear Aaron doesn’t pay me enough), I’ve managed to find that (EDIT : it appears SQ has slotted the 787-10 for 7 May on SQ223/SQ214 as a one off before regular scheduled services on SQ215/SQ216) 8 May 2018 would be the first day of operation for the 787-10 to Perth with it departing as SQ215 from Singapore to Perth and returning as SQ216 from Perth. The flight would leave Singapore at 1845 and reach Perth at 2355 the same day (Perth and Singapore are both GMT+8), the ground time for the aircraft is about an hour and after getting spruced up and meals restocked, it would depart Perth at 0110 with wheels down at Changi at 0635.

Here’s how many miles you would need to redeem a business class ticket or to upgrade your economy ticket to business class:

Currently, there’s still at least 2 Saver seats available for the flight to Perth on 8 May 2018, as confirmed by using both KVS and the SQ website :

The flight back from Perth on 9 May 2018 also still has at least 2 Saver seats available, so if you were to fly to Perth and back just for the thrills, you’d be able to do so.

Concluding Thoughts

While many might bemoan SQ for picking Perth as the next destination to be served with the Boeing 787-10 due to the plethora of other destinations currently served with their A330/B772 aircraft (ahem Taipei/Seoul ahem), if SQ can commit to scheduling the 787-10 to two destinations within May itself, my guess is that the list of destinations that would be served by the 787-10 this year would grow quite fast.

Also, my guess is that Perth doesn’t really get much love from tourists thus explaining why award space is quite open throughout the year.