Aukahkay From Singapore, joined Nov 2005, 68 posts, RR: 0 Posted (2 years 10 months 2 weeks ago) and read 2679 times:
SQ has a daily non-stop flight to EWR on the A340-500. SIN-EWR (SQ22) flies eastwards trans-Pacific. The return flight EWR-SIN (SQ21) flies eastwards trans-Atlantic. This makes the SIN-EWR-SIN service an eastward round-the-world flight.
What are the advantages of taking this round-the-world route? Has it got to do with the favourable tailwind flying eastwards?
Is there any other airline flying to a destination without backtracking? Does TG's service to JFK span two oceans?
Andrew From Singapore, joined Dec 1999, 368 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 2547 times:
SQ 22/21 SIN-EWR-SIN flies eastwards to take advantage of the tailwinds across the northern Pacific and Atlantic. The jetsteams found along those routes average around 100 kts and can significantly reduce the amount of time (hence fuel) required for the journey.
SIN-EWR usually routes over NE across Japan and over Anchorage, then crossing somewhere between Edmonton and Calgary as it tracks towards EWR.
EWR-SIN usually routes over the SE coast of Greenland before exiting the Pond close to Copenhagen. It then follows the regular air routes between Europe and South East Asia down towards Singapore.
Thisfavourable winds are the reason why the polar great circle routes are not used even though they are the shortest distance between the 2 cities. Note, however, that meteorological conditions change all the time so there are times when the polar routes become favourable.
Hope this g ives you more insight into the choice of routes taken.
Yes. TG JFK - BKK more often than not flies Eastward from JFK across Europe and South Asia, and BKK - JFK flies North Eastward from BKK over Alaska, or sometimes even further South, depending on wind conditions.
BAW716 From United States, joined Nov 2003, 1814 posts, RR: 32 Reply 6, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 1808 times:
Andrew,
Where do you have your information on the SQ westbound tracks? I agree with you on eastbound that they track more east toward Alaska then jog left to pick up the jetstream. However, westbound, they use the Polar 1 routing, which is indeed NE from EWR up toward Thule, starting the Polar cross at about 80N50W and end up on the other side at about 80N95E, then track SE toward Irkutsk, then SE toward Hanoi before crosing Thailand and into Singapore.
I've flown them in simulated environment, which is why I know a fair amount about these tracks. Is there something you have I'm missing?
thanks
baw716
David L. Lamb, fmr Area Mgr Alitalia SFO 1998-2002, fmr Regional Analyst SFO-UAL 1992-1998
Andrew From Singapore, joined Dec 1999, 368 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 22 hours ago) and read 1756 times:
Hey BAW716,
I have a friend who flies on the A345, and he says that more often than not, they fly across the Atlantic before joining up with the normal Europe-Asia airways to SIN.
Remember the incident where there was a crack in the windshield that occurred inflight a few months ago? The were flying in the vicinity of CPH at the time but elected to go to LHR instead where they have better support for the aircraft type (VS would be my guess).
You'll also find lots of pics of the A345 on this site overflying MAN, ARN, CPH on their way from EWR-SIN.
RoseFlyer From United States, joined Feb 2004, 5280 posts, RR: 17 Reply 9, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 1638 times:
Well when I flew the route we did a polar routing on the EWR-SIN leg and then flew accross the north Pacific and then paralleled the US-Canadian border into EWR.
I design airplane parts for a living and am that guy that mechanics hate and blame for everything... the Design Engineer
Star_world From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2001, 1021 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 1539 times:
Very useful, but not for flights that start / finish outside US airspace, as the position information is either not there or not correct - I've seen this site come back with some very strange results for intl flights in the past.
BAW716 From United States, joined Nov 2003, 1814 posts, RR: 32 Reply 11, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 1468 times:
Andrew,
I just checked out the website and sure enough, today's, SQ21 is planned to go over the Atlantic crossing over DUB, then over central Europe and onto the Europe-Singapore nonstop routing. I find this very strange; it doesn't necessarily add that much time; EWR-ZRH is about 8 hours and ZRH-SIN is about 10.5, so the flight time is the same, the route is just more circuitous. However, from a diversion standpoint, it is a much better routing, since it permits the use of airports in the Gulf, India and Thailand as diversion airports, plus everything in Europe of course.
Using this routing to Singapore and then returning via the west coast of the USA does indeed make this a round the world flight.
baw716
David L. Lamb, fmr Area Mgr Alitalia SFO 1998-2002, fmr Regional Analyst SFO-UAL 1992-1998
Ikramerica From United States, joined May 2005, 15657 posts, RR: 49 Reply 12, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 16 hours ago) and read 1429 times:
Winter winds vs. summer winds, I suppose. The linked file shows a polar routing for the ewr-sin leg, but I would assume that if the windows are strong out of the arctic in the winter, polar routing is less efficient.
EWR-HKG-EWR on CO has similar interesting routings depending on the season.
Which begs a question re: the hooplah for SYD-LHR.
QF was worried that to make it all year, it would have to use a 120seat 772LR. Now they are realizing that making it all year is pointless. They could use a 250 seat 772LR and make it non-stop 10 months out of the year, and 1-stop the rest of the time (one direction). Not only could they sell the seats for less of a premium all year round, but in the winter months that would require a fuel tech stop, they could discount the fair to the same as the other one stops on that leg. Overall, they'd still make money, and isn't that the point?
Looking for the 100% solution makes things impractical and expensive (just ask NASA). But being happy with the 90% solution can often be a real bargain!
Of all the things to worry about... the Wookie has no pants.
Scanwing From Sweden, joined Mar 2005, 63 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (2 years 10 months 1 week 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 1209 times:
Quoting COEWR787 (Reply 5): Yes. TG JFK - BKK more often than not flies Eastward from JFK across Europe and South Asia, and BKK - JFK flies North Eastward from BKK over Alaska, or sometimes even further South, depending on wind conditions.
The TG flight use to fly over Stockholm, Sweden on it's way to BKK. At least it has done it 12 times so far this month already. Unfortunately it passing overhere at midnight.
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