Owing to its geographical location, Singapore Airlines has operated a number of fifth freedom routes over the years, particularly to the United States. Currently, it has 3: SIN-NRT-LAX and SIN-FRA-JFK on the 777-300ER, and SIN-MAN-IAH on the A350-900. Unfortunately, the route between Manchester and Houston is set to end on April 1st of this year, while the airline will continue to serve the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom from Singapore. Thus, I decided to get this flight in before it’s too late. Enjoy!
Server: Solo
Airline: Singapore Airlines
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Origin: Singapore Changi Airport, Changi, Singapore (SIN)
Destination: Manchester Airport, Ringway, United Kingdom (MAN)
Flight Number: SQ52
Route: WSSS-EGCC
Seat: 21A (Business)
Time En Route: 14 Hours 24 Minutes
Getting situated in our business class seat aboard our aircraft in the very early morning in Singapore. While the basic design of the seat is over a decade old, it has a much more robust, solid feel to it than many modern business class seats. Additionally, the seat is angled towards the windows, rather than the aisle, like many modern business class seats do. All in all, not a bad seat and a rather welcome change from the low-profile, minimalist designs common today.
Holding short while we start Engine 1
Even with a pretty heavy load, the Trent 1000 XWBs get us airborne in short order
On the western side of the Bay of Bengal, near Bhubaneswar, India
After a few hours of sleep, we catch the sunrise over Armenia
Ready for our final approach to Ringway
Landing just in time for breakfast at Manchester
Taxiing over to Terminal 2
Getting ready to briefly deplane and get a bite to eat before re-boarding for the trip across the Atlantic to Houston