Reuters - 1 hour 11 minutes ago
SINGAPORE, March 4 - Singapore Airlines said on Tuesday it will convert five Airbus aircraft into all-business class seating, for its non-stop Singapore-New York and Singapore-Los Angeles flights.
"The peak demand for the non-stop flights is from our business class customers, and this change will expand business class capacity from 64 to 100 seats on each flight," said executive vice president Huang Cheng Eng in a statement.
The carrier's change to focus on more higher-yielding business traffic comes despite forecasts that growth in demand for air travel is expected to slow this year, hit by fears of a U.S. recession that could hurt business travel.
Singapore Air, the world's biggest airline by stock market value, said the flights on the A340-500 planes will be phased in from mid-May, replacing the current arrangement of 181 seats for economic and business classes.