Singapore Airlines offers the world’s shortest A380 flight between KUL and SIN

Singapore Airlines will be operating the world’s shortest Airbus A380 flight starting next month for its Kuala Lumpur and Singapore route. The announcement comes as more countries are gradually lifting travel restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals.

The Airbus A380 is the world’s largest passenger aircraft that offers high-capacity seating with its double-deck layout. Flying on an A380 is becoming rare these days as airlines have begun phasing out the quad-jet aircraft for more fuel-efficient twin-engine aircraft like the Airbus A350 and Boeing 787.

The daily Airbus A380 flight is scheduled to start on 4th November 2021 at 8:30am for SQ 106 from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur before returning back to Singapore at 11:00am on SQ 105. Subsequently, it will operate at 6.25pm for flight SQ 126 from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and returning at 9:00pm for SQ 125 from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. At the moment, their largest aircraft for the route is the Airbus A350.

At the time of writing, a return A380 flight departing from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore on 4th November and returning to Kuala Lumpur on the next day costs RM677 on Economy Lite. If you plan the KUL to SIN trip on 5th November and returning on 7th November, it will cost you RM572 on Economy Lite as well.

For this route, Singapore Airlines are only offering economy and business class seats.

Although the 60-minute flight between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore is considered short, it isn’t the shortest commercial A380 flight in history. That honour goes to Emirates in 2019 when it previously operated the A380 between Dubai and Muscat with a flight time of about 40 minutes. At the moment, the route is serviced by a Boeing 777.

In case you missed it, Malaysia Airlines used to operate six Airbus A380 for its long haul routes including Kuala Lumpur to London. In July this year, its parent company Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) announced that it is getting rid of the A380 fleet less than 10 years since it took delivery of its first A380 aircraft. The decision was made due to the high cost of operations and it was accelerated due to the pandemic situation.

As announced by the Prime Minister, fully vaccinated Malaysians can now travel overseas and they are exempted from applying MyTravelPass. However, mandatory quarantine is still required upon return and fully vaccinated individuals can request for home quarantine. The quarantine period for fully vaccinated individuals has been reduced to 7 days.

Malaysia is starting its pilot for “test and release” protocol where selected individuals entering Malaysia may skip quarantine if they are tested negative. The pilot is currently offered to rulers, ministers, heads of states, members of Parliament and government officials, and there are plans to extend the programme for business travellers in the near future.

If you’re going to Singapore, Maxis currently offers 5G roaming on Singtel. Users can enjoy 5G data roaming at the same charge as 4G roaming and the plans start from RM29/day for unlimited use.