Singapore Airlines Announces Nonstop Flights to San Francisco

   By Gaurav Raghuvanshi

SINGAPORE--Singapore Airlines Ltd. (C6L.SG) Thursday said it will start nonstop flights between Singapore and San Francisco in October, after United Continental Holdings Inc. started flying on the route on June 1.

Singapore Airlines said it would add a second daily service to Los Angeles in an expansion of its U.S. operations and suspend flights to Sao Paulo.

Singapore Airlines has been facing stiff competition on the premium traffic on North American routes with U.S. airlines starting more flights to Asian cities and Persian Gulf-based carriers such as Emirates Airline and Qatar Airways offering connections to U.S. cities with a stop in Dubai or Doha. With new jets that consume less fuel and can fly on longer routes more efficiently, airlines are seeking to bring back ultralong flights that are valued by business travelers.

The nonstop Singapore-San Francisco flights will be operated daily from Oct. 23 on an Airbus Group SA A350-900 aircraft. United uses a relatively smaller-sized Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliner jet on the route.

Singapore Airlines currently has two daily flights to San Francisco via Hong Kong and Seoul. With the launch of nonstop Singapore-San Francisco flights, the flight via Seoul will start flying to Los Angeles, the carrier said in a statement.

Flying time for the new Singapore-San Francisco will be between 14 hours and 35 minutes and 17 hours, 45 minutes, depending on direction and time of year, over a journey of around 13,600 kilometers. These will be the longest flights in Singapore Airlines' network until 2018, when a new variant of the A350-900 will enter service, enabling even longer nonstop flights to both Los Angeles and New York.

In addition to San Francisco and Los Angeles, Singapore Airlines flies to Houston via Moscow and New York JFK via Frankfurt.

Write to Gaurav Raghuvanshi at gaurav.raghuvanshi@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 15, 2016 20:05 ET (00:05 GMT)

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