SIA backs two-stop flights as Manchester gets A350 boost

It upgraded the flight it operates under fifth-freedom rights.

Singapore Airlines Ltd. deepened its commitment to two-stop flights after deploying the world’s newest wide-body jet on services that call in at Manchester, northern England, en route to Houston, Texas. The Asian carrier this week upgraded the flight, which it operates under so-called fifth-freedom rights, to Airbus Group SE’s A350-900 jet, of which it has only 10 in the fleet, from Boeing Co.’s older 777-300ER.

Singapore Air also serves New York via Frankfurt and will fly to Stockholm with a stop in Moscow from May. There may be scope for adding other such routes, Sheldon Hee, its general manager for the U.K. and Ireland, said in an interview. Fifth-freedom flights, once a mainstay of long-haul operations, have become comparatively rare since longer-range aircraft opened up direct trips between most major population centers from the early 1980s. For Singapore Air, the two-city combinations help boost seat occupancy as it vies with Mideast carriers such as Emirates that serve most of the world via hubs in the Persian Gulf, and a new class of low-cost operators including Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA.

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