A380 lovers can get their hands on one of the spacious business class seats found onboard Singapore Airlines A380s. A company in Japan is offering the rare opportunity to purchase A380 business class seats for home-usage. This represents the first opportunity to buy the seats outside of Singapore.
An A380 seat for your home
Business seats onboard the Singapore Airlines A380 are a whopping 86cm wide, offering an unrivaled level of space and comfort. Now aviation enthusiasts have the opportunity to purchase their very own seat to take home.
An unnamed Japanese company located in Chiba Prefecture is selling business class seats straight from the Singapore Airlines A380 fleet. While the seat has been on sale in Singapore before, it is now available in a foreign country for the very first time. There’s no word yet on what kind of price you’d be looking at (not to mention the shipping costs).
The seat was designed by UK-based James Park Associates and is manufactured in Japan. Singapore Airlines unveiled brand-new business class seats back in 2017. It appears the seats on offer in Japan are not of the newer variety, but the older models before the redesign. The older A380 business seats are around 5 inches wider than the new design.
“These days, when there is no opportunity to board an airplane due to the coronavirus pandemic, you can recreate a luxury flight at home, spread a large table, and enjoy your meal.”
What’s happening to the Singapore A380 fleet?
Some may be concerned that this move by Singapore Airlines may spell the beginning of the end for its A380 fleet. However, the airline still has the A380 firmly in its plans. The most likely explanation is that Singapore Airlines is selling off its older generation business seats after replacing them with their new design.
According to OAG, Singapore Airlines has 1,729 roundtrips scheduled with the A380 for 2021, which would make it the third-largest operator of the giant jet. This is still far behind Emirates, which is planning 15,544 roundtrips, but only a shade behind second-placed Korean Airlines, which has 1,751 roundtrips scheduled.
Singapore Airlines has 19 Airbus A380s in its fleet and will retire seven of those planes, leaving it with 12 A380s. The airline had initially planned to get its A380s back in service by June before pushing the return back to July.
The latest Singapore Airlines curiosity
Singapore Airlines is one of the more interesting carriers worldwide in terms of its creativity. The airline notably converted an A380 into a restaurant, which Simple Flying had the opportunity to review last year. The public appetite was huge, with every single seat at the restaurant reportedly snapped up within 30 minutes of going on sale.
With a 97.9% reduction in passenger capacity from March 2020 – March 2021, Singapore Airlines had its worst-ever year, posting record losses of $3.2 billion. A significant chunk of these losses was put down to early retirements of aircraft (45 in total), which included seven of its A380s.
How much would you be willing to pay for an A380 business class seat? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
from Simple Flying https://ift.tt/3jSYUqs
via IFTTT
Comments
Post a Comment