Singapore Airlines expands Seattle service with 5th weekly flight

Note that this is not the same as SIA’s originally proposed increase to five times weekly operation on the route back in March 2020, which saw additional service on Mondays, instead of Fridays.

All flights on this route will continue to use SIA’s 253-seat three-class Airbus A350 Long Haul aircraft, configured as follows:

• 42 Business Class (2013 J)
• 24 Premium Economy Class (2013 PY)
• 187 Economy Class (2013 Y / 2017 Y)

Singapore Airlines tends to prioritise its A350 Long Haul+ sub-variant on Seattle flights, since they have longer range than older aircraft in the fleet. These benefit from the latest 2017 Economy Class seats, rather than the older 2013 version seen on the carrier’s other A350 aircraft.

Overall, Singapore Airlines will operate 57 flights per week to and from the USA once this frequency increase for the Seattle route comes into effect, based on June 2025 schedules.

• Los Angeles: 17/wk
• New York: 14/wk
• Newark: 7/wk
• San Francisco: 14/wk
• Seattle: 5/wk

However, this is less than the 61 U.S. flights per week the airline is currently operating, because services to Houston will be axed from late March 2025.

SIA’s Seattle flights are busy

Before the pandemic, Seattle was proving to be a big hit for Singapore Airlines with four times weekly flights recording up to 90% load factors.

Singapore Airlines
Seattle Route Performance
(Sep 2019 – Mar 2020)

Month	Passenger Load Factor
	Singapore Seattle	Seattle Singapore
Sep ’19	93.4%	83.1%
Oct ’19	87.3%	90.2%
Nov ’19	88.1%	86.6%
Dec ’19	89.3%	90.3%
Jan ’20	95.3%	87.1%
— COVID-19 impacts global travel —
Feb ’20	83.1%	65.0%
Mar ’20	64.8%	43.6%

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics

COVID-19 put a stop to that early success of course, as the figures reflect from February 2020 onwards, but the airline must have been buoyed by the demand it was seeing to and from the U.S. “tech town”.

Seattle had already witnessed significant non-stop international flight expansion from other Asian carriers like ANA and Cathay Pacific in recent years, before the pandemic hit.

How has the performance been more recently? Well looking at the first 10 months of 2024, it’s certainly positive.

Singapore Airlines
Seattle Route Performance
(Jan 2024 – Oct 2024)

Month	Passenger Load Factor
	Singapore Seattle	Seattle Singapore
Jan ’24	91.1%	85.2%
Feb ’24	90.4%	86.4%
Mar ’24	94.8%	86.4%
Apr ’24	96.7%	87.4%
May ’24	94.1%	91.6%
Jun ’24	94.0%	99.5%
Jul ’24	96.2%	92.8%
Aug ’24	95.2%	87.4%
Sep ’24	95.0%	88.6%
Oct ’24	92.1%	90.2%

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics

SIA is no doubt pleased with Seattle’s route performance, which has seen load factors over over 95% some months, hence the introduction of a fifth weekly connection later this year, which will increase seat capacity by 25% from 2,024 per week to 2,530 per week.

Cathay Pacific notably launched four weekly Hong Kong – Seattle flights in 2019, but has yet to resume the route post-pandemic. This delay potentially presents Singapore Airlines with an opportunity to capitalise on the reduced capacity between the Pacific Northwest and Asia caused by its Oneworld competitor’s prolonged absence.

Singapore Airlines also codeshares on a variety of flights operated by Seattle-based Alaska Airlines across the USA and Mexico, allowing connectivity to several destinations it does not serve directly.

KrisFlyer awards

These are the one-way KrisFlyer miles redemption rates for flights between Singapore and Seattle on these SIA flights.

Taxes and fees of around S$90 are payable in the Singapore – Seattle direction on top of your KrisFlyer miles, though only around S$8 is charged in the Seattle – Singapore direction.

If you intend to book a firm ticket in an eligible booking class, here’s how many miles it will then cost you to upgrade one-way on the Seattle route, assuming saver upgrade award availability in your proposed cabin class.

Upgrade using KrisFlyer miles Singapore ⇄ Seattle
Upgrading to →	Premium	Business
Existing booking ↓
Economy Standard (Class: M, H, W)	50,500	90,000
Economy Flexi (Class: Y, B, E)	33,500	71,500
Premium Economy Standard (Class: P, L)	→	64,500
Premium Economy Flexi (Class: S, T)	→	50,500

Seattle has occasionally featured in recent monthly KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes deals, with Economy Class award tickets priced at 29,400 miles (a 30% discount off the usual saver rate). With the increased flights in 2025, here’s hoping the city makes more frequent appearances in these offers.

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Singapore Airlines is hiking its Seattle schedule Seattle from late May this year, with a capacity boost of 25% from a fifth weekly non-stop flight, fulfilling a pre-COVID plan delayed by several years by the pandemic.

With impressive passenger demand and consistently high load factors, the route continues to demonstrate strong potential and we wouldn’t be surprised to see further increases in future, particularly as competitors like Cathay Pacific continue to delay their return to Seattle.

(Cover Photo: Stephen Plopper)