Singapore Airlines has announced that it will be launching non-stop flights between Singapore and London’s Gatwick Airport from June 2024.
SIA will fly to London Gatwick five times per week, which together with its existing four-times daily Heathrow services will increase the total flights to the United Kingdom’s capital to 33x, up from the current 28x.ย
“London has always been a very important market for the Singapore Airlines Group. With the introduction of this new service to Londonโs Gatwick Airport, Singapore Airlinesโ customers will have an additional flight to choose from when flying between Singapore and the UK. It also opens up additional travel options to other points in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.โ
-Dai Hao Yu, acting SVP Marketing Planning, SIA
The airline had previously dabbled with the Gatwick route through its low-cost subsidiary Scoot (as SIN-BKK-LGW), though the route was canned after less than a year.
In addition to London, SIA also operates 5x weekly services to Manchester Airport, with onwards service to Houston.
Tickets for the Gatwick route will be made available for sale (and presumably redemption) progressively from 19 December 2023.
Singapore Airlines adds London Gatwick flights
Singapore Airlines service to London Gatwick will commence on 21 June 2024, with the following schedule:
Singapore to London Gatwick
| โ๏ธ From 21 Jun 24 to 28 Mar 25 |
|||
| Flight | Depart | Arrive | Days |
| SQ310 | 2355 | 0625 (+1) | Mon, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun |
SQ310 departs from Changi just before midnight on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
It arrives in London Gatwick in the early morning, allowing for morning connections to elsewhere in Europe, or a full day ahead, if London is your final destination.ย
London Gatwick to Singapore
| โ๏ธ From 22 Jun 24 to 26 Oct 24 |
|||
| Flight | Depart | Arrive | Days |
| SQ309 | 1015 | 0620 (+1) | Mon, Tue, Fri, Sat, Sun |
| โ๏ธ From 27 Oct 24 to 28 Mar 25 |
|||
| Flight | Depart | Arrive | Days |
| SQ309 | 0920 | 0615 (+1) | Mon, Tue, Fri, Sat, Sun |
SQ309 departs from London Gatwick in the morning on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.ย
It arrives in Singapore in the early morning, again well-suited for connections on SIA or Scoot across Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand,ย or a full working day.
Aircraft type
The London Gatwick route will be operated by a three-cabin Airbus A350-900LH, with 253 seats split into:
- 42 Business Class
- 24 Premium Economy Class
- 187 Economy Class
I’ve reviewed the Business Class product on this aircraft numerous times, so take your pick from the posts below:
- Review: Singapore to Munich, A350-900
- Review: Munich to Singapore, A350-900
- Review: Singapore to Newark, A350-900ULR
What’s the lounge situation in Gatwick?
There’s no obvious candidate for a lounge in Gatwick, since none of SIA’s Star Alliance partners operate a lounge in the airport (there’s no airline-branded lounges, for that matter).
However, there’s a wide variety of contract lounges, including Plaza Premium and No1 Lounges. The latter is the contract lounge for Star Alliance members Aegean, Croatia Airlines, Turkish Airlines and TAP Portugal, so my money’s on that becoming the facility for SIA passengers.
We should get more details on this in the weeks to come, so stay tuned.
Why Gatwick?
London is certainly not short of airports, with a total of sixย serving the UK capital (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, City and Southend, if you must know).ย
Gatwick is the second largest after Heathrow, and while I’m sure SIA would love to increase its Heathrow services, the airport operates at near 100% capacity and all departures and arrivals are slot controlled. The asking price for one of these slots? Well, back in 2016, Oman Air paid a reported US$75 million just for one premium slot pair, so it’s safe to say they don’t come cheap.ย
In that sense,ย Gatwick is probably the second best option to expand SIA’s UK operations, and even though it’s nearly twice as far to the centre of London as Heathrow, getting there via public transport takes roughly the same time. The Gatwick Express will get you into town in roughly 30 minutes, and there’s also options with Southern, Thameslink and Great Western Railway.ย
Travellers are directly connected toย major hubs such as London Blackfriars, London Bridge, City Thameslink, St. Pancras International and London Victoria.
With fewer international flights than Heathrow, one hopes the immigration lines at Gatwick are more manageable- though Singaporeans can take advantage of the eGates anyway.
How much do KrisFlyer awards cost?
London Gatwick will fall into Zone 11 of the KrisFlyer award chart, which means you can expect to pay the following for award redemptions.
 Singapore to London Gatwick redemptions(Flight on Singapore Air) |
||
| ย | Saver (One-Way) |
Advantage (One-Way) |
| Economy | 42,000 | 70,000 |
| Premium Economy | 71,000 | N/A |
| Business | 103,500 | 123,000 |
Award seats should go live together with commercial bookings on 19 December 2023, and remember: the best time to snap up award seats is when a new route opens because a whole chunk of award space gets added at one shot.
We saw that happen with the Brussels launch earlier this year, so fingers crossed for another bonanza with Gatwick.
SIA’s Europe network up to 14 destinations
Prior to COVID, Singapore Airlines operated flights to 15 European destinations.ย
12 of those destinations have now been restored, with Brussels and London Gatwick new additions for 2024. Dusseldorf, Moscow and Stockholm remain the three absentees.
| Destination | Status |
| Amsterdam | Active |
| Barcelona | Active |
| Brussels | Active from 5 April 2024 |
| Copenhagen | Active |
| Dusseldorf | Suspended |
| Frankfurt | Active |
| Istanbul | Active |
| London Heathrow | Active |
| London Gatwick | Active from 21 June 2024 |
| Manchester | Active |
| Milan | Active |
| Moscow | Suspended |
| Munich | Active |
| Paris | Active |
| Rome | Active |
| Stockholm | Suspended |
| Zurich | Active |
Conclusion
Singapore Airlines will be adding non-stop flights to London Gatwick, with five flights a week commencing from 21 June 2024.
Even if London is not your final destination, another European gateway presents more redemption possibilities, since you can redeem the long haul leg and buy a cheap budget flight to connect elsewhere within the region.
Keep your eyes peeled for award seats starting 19 December 2023, because there should be a glut when they’re first loaded.
What do you make of SIA adding London Gatwick services?
Exciting news! What’s the airport tax at Gatwick compared to that at Heathrow? Hope it’s much lower.
Apd is the same, but you save about 60 bucks on passenger service charge
Although itโs nice to see SQ grow, Iโd have preferred to see that capacity used to expand into new markets like Vienna or Chicago. That mightโve also allowed a new carrier like VS to jump into the fray and add some diversity to LHR-SIN.
Looks like the crew that flies into LGW on a Tuesday will have at least two full days off to explore the city. Nice.
As a South Londoner this is a fantastic Christmas present!
Gatwick is more of a vacation than a business airport but it is pretty easy to get into central London from.
My small concern is that LGW is super busy in the morning with people setting out on short-haul vacations so be prepared for queues. The lounges will be jammed on peak days.
from what i hear, gatwick is ever-so-slightly less miserable than heathrow, which truth be told isnt saying a lot.
UK resident here – itโs actually the opposite, what Heathrow lacks due to busyness it makes up for with lounges / infrastructure. Gatwick is a depressing third world airport and SQ customers are having a major downgrade with the No.1 lounge.
Still, always good to get extra capacity added!
In the morning you have similar issues at LHR though – all the *A lounges are packed and the airport is very busy with with US flights etc. No.1 isn’t actually too bad if they control the numbers – manned bar with a similar selection to SQ lounge, food isn’t too bad etc.
of course LHR lends itself more to a lounge safari, especially if you’re flying oneworld…
Wished that flight timings would be unique, something like a 0230 departure from SIN and an afternoon departure from LGW like the 3rd flight to FRA. These timings seem to just replicate SQ322/SQ305 timings