Michael Kratz

After flying Internationally with QANTAS into Asia in 2005 and being extremely disappointed with the quality of their cabin, the aircraft (an old B767) and available entertainment, last year in 2008 I decided to try Singapore Airlines. In January I flew with Singapore Airlines to the Philippines and Singapore. I was lucky enough to score a sector on the shiny new A380 (9V-SKA) from Sydney to Singapore.
 

Singapore A380 9V-SKA at Changi Terminal 3

I was extremely impressed with the quality and features of the of the A380. The 777-300 we were on for the next sector was very average in comparison, however still far better than my experiences with QANTAS. On the return flight with SIA, we had a 747-400 red-eye flight from Singapore to Sydney, again the cabin in that aircraft just didn’t compare to the new cabin of the A380.

After a bit of research, it appears the ‘new’ cabin design and KrisWorld system is currently only available on Singapore’s A380’s and 777-300ER’s. Not on any of their other 777 or 747 fleet. In particular not on the large 777-200 fleet that they have.

 Late last year, I again chose Singapore Airlines when I flew once again into South-East Asia. This time I flew directly from Adelaide. SIA currently fly 777-200’s to and from Adelaide, these still have the older, more dated cabin, some of them even have a sufficiently old enough version of KrisWorld that they don’t even support ‘on demand’, which is disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still not a ‘bad’ cabin, compared to the other airlines, and the service is still absolutely top notch. But it’s disappointing when one is aware that there is something so much better :)

Singapore Airlines 777-200 9V-SRD in Adelaide

Anyway, I was looking at some RSS feeds today, and much to my delight I came upon a news release on Singapore Airlines’ website “Australian, Japanese Cities to be First for New A330 operations”, in this release it describes how SIA are in the process of receiving some newly built A330-300 series aircraft from Airbus, which they’re going to use on sectors from Singapore to Australia, including Adelaide.

According to the article, the A330’s will begin flying to Adelaide from the 1st of June 2009, and will include a new cabin design and layout specifically suited to these ‘regional’ sectors. Sweeeeet! There isn’t any pictures or detailed info on the features of the cabin just yet, however the layout of the cabin is available on the SIA website. Logically the cabin will be in the least very similar or equal to that of the A380 and 777-300ER cabins, not to mention the fact that these will be brand spanking new aircraft, straight off the production line in Toulouse. (picture here of the first one on it’s first test flight)

A380 Economy Class Cabin

I’m also quite happy about this for another reason, that being that I’m more of an Airbus fan than one of Boeing. I much prefer the cabins of Airbus aircraft over those of their Boeing counterparts. The shape of the fuselage of Airbus aircraft seem to make them feel a lot larger and roomier, and subsequently, a lot more comfortable. This is particularly noticeable when comparing the A320 to the B737.

Hence, I’m very happy to see that Singapore’s Adelaide flights will be switching away from the ‘older’ Boeing 777-200’s with ‘older’ cabins and ‘limited’ KrisWorld, to brand spanking new A330-300’s with a brand new cabin and the most up-to-date KrisWorld.

I know which airline I’ll be choosing in the future when I next fly an International sector!

Update: Dan Warne from APC Magazine has some interesting info about the new A330 cabin.