Singapore Airlines: New Business Class for 737-8

Singapore Airlines has announced new cabins for its fleet of Boeing 737-8 aircraft arriving in the coming weeks. They are installing a truely business class product for the mainly short haul routes that these aircraft will fly.

Background

Back in 2018, it was decided to merge Singapore Airlines and its allied brand SilkAir into one airline, providing continuity of quality and service across the the airline. And you know what that means? Cabin upgrades, and here they are for the 737MAX 8’s.

New Planes

Singapore has 37 of them on order, with 6 currently in the fleet. The aircraft have 154 seats over 2 classes. 10 in business and 144 in Economy.

Business Class

This features lie-flat Business Class seats designed by London-based Factorydesign and built by Thompson Aero Seating. This means you get a Throne Seat in the 2nd row in the 2-2,1-1,2-2 cabin with 10 seat cabin.

Economy Cabin

Economy seats come from Collins Aerospace. Panasonic’s X-Series seat-back in-flight entertainment across the cabins with KrisWorld entertainment content and Wi-Fi.

Routes

The SIA’s 737-8 aircraft will enter service on short- to medium-haul flights in the coming weeks. Routes from Singapore will include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, and Thailand given regulatory approvals. More routes will be announced as the aircraft are rolled into the fleet. 

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

I can see myself making use of these seats to their full lie-flat advantages between Singapore and the Maldives!