Singapore Airlines is ending its longest direct flight, with the 26-hour trip to Houston axed from April 2025, though Manchester services are being retained and London Gatwick will be hiked to daily.
Singapore Airlines has announced a range of adjustments to its summer 2025 flight schedule, which runs from late March through to late October next year, with perhaps the most prominent news that the carrier will stop serving Houston in the USA, after 17 years.
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In turn this will also reduce SIA’s count of “fifth freedom” flights, since the Houston service is currently operated via Manchester in the UK, but the good news is that Manchester itself will retain five times weekly service, via a dedicated terminator flight.
Singapore Airlines is also boosting its services to and from the UK as a whole, with a highly-anticipated 40% frequency hike on its recently-launched London Gatwick flight, from five times weekly to daily, effective from late March 2025.
This will give the airline a total of 40 dedicated passenger flights to and from the UK per week, its highest ever total.
Houston flights ending
Singapore Airlines first launched flights to and from Houston in the USA over 16 years ago, in March 2008, with flights initially operating via Moscow using four-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
The airline switched to a Singapore – Manchester – Houston routing in late October 2016, swapping the aircraft type to the three-class Airbus A350 Long Haul from January the following year.
The new link made headlines, with SIA becoming the first airline in the world to operate the Airbus A350 on commercial flights from both Manchester and Houston, on the same day.
The final extension of SIA’s flight from Manchester to Houston and back will depart on 30th March 2025.
SIA’s Houston flights were suspended between March 2020 and November 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but otherwise have seen continuous service for the last 16 years, so its sad to see this link ending.
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Singapore – Houston is the airline’s longest direct flight on the network (same aircraft, same flight number), clocking in at 26 hours 15 minutes, including the 1 hour 30 minute stop in Manchester.
Here’s how the schedule between Singapore and Houston looks for the northern winter season, prior to its cessation.
Singapore Houston
27 Oct 2024 – 30 Mar 2025
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
 | SQ52 A350 LH | ||||||||
| SIN 02:10 | MAN 08:55 | ||||||||
| Duration: 14:25 | |||||||||
| SQ52 A350 LH | ||||||||
| MAN 10:05 | IAH 14:25 | ||||||||
| Duration: 10:20 | |||||||||
* Next day
Houston Singapore
27 Oct 2024 – 30 Mar 2025
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
| SQ51 A350 LH | ||||||||
| IAH 19:50 | MAN 09:30* | ||||||||
| Duration: 08:40 | |||||||||
| SQ51 A350 LH | ||||||||
| MAN 10:45 | SIN 07:55* | ||||||||
| Duration: 13:10 | |||||||||
* Next day
The following award rates apply for KrisFlyer members redeeming miles between Singapore and Houston, or between Manchester and Houston.
| KrisFlyer Redemption Rates Singapore ⇆ Houston | ||
| Saver | Advantage | |
| Economy | 44,000 | 75,000 |
| Premium Economy | 80,500 | n/a |
| Business | 111,500 | 143,500 |
| KrisFlyer Redemption Rates Manchester ⇆ Houston | ||
| Saver | Advantage | |
| Economy | 25,000 | 40,000 |
| Premium Economy | 52,000 | n/a |
| Business | 81,000 | 87,500 |
Singapore Airlines will continue to serve five airports in the USA even after the Houston link ends, with non-stop flights between the Lion City and Los Angeles, New York-JFK, Newark, San Francisco and Seattle remaining on the roster.
A daily “fifth freedom” flight between Tokyo-Narita and Los Angeles is also retained, offering one-stop service between the Californian city and Singapore, though the historic SQ1/2 Singapore – Hong Kong – San Francisco service remains suspended.
SIA also retains a daily “fifth freedom” flight between Frankfurt and New York-JFK, in addition to its non-stop option.
Manchester gets a dedicated service
Manchester in the UK has been a key part of SIA’s network for 38 years.
In fact, Singapore Airlines is Manchester Airport’slongest serving long-haul carrier, having launched flights there in 1986, after three years of fighting to get rights from the UK Government (who initially wanted the airline to give up a lucrative Heathrow slot pair, in order to receive the nod for a Manchester service).
SIA never gave up a single Heathrow slot in the end, and the carrier has offered regular Manchester flights ever since, apart from the obvious gap during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the years the airline has operated several aircraft types to and from the city:
- Boeing 747-300(1986-1994)
- Boeing 747-400(1994-2003)
- Boeing 777-200ER(2003-2010)
- Boeing 777-300ER(2010-2017)
- Airbus A350-900(2017 onwards)
Services have operated via cities including Brussels, Dubai, Athens, Zurich and Munich over the years, before upgrading to non-stop in 2016, with Manchester then used as an intermediate point on the carrier’s Houston service.
That coincided with SIA’s 30th year of Manchester operations, with the airline also launching its first ever UK-US “fifth freedom” route between Manchester and Houston, a link that will sadly be ending next year.
Now that Houston is being axed from late March 2025, the good news is that five times weekly Manchester flights are being retained.
This will effectively increase capacity to and from the city, since these flights will no longer ‘share’ seats with Singapore – Houston travellers, but will instead provide dedicated capacity to and from Manchester itself.
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Here’s how the schedule looks for this dedicated service for the summer 2025 season, with new flight numbers in the ‘European’ 3xx sequence.
Singapore Manchester
1 Apr 2025 – 25 Oct 2025
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
| SQ302 A350 LH | ||||||||
| SIN 02:10 | MAN 08:55 | ||||||||
| Duration: 13:45 | |||||||||
* Next day
Manchester Singapore
1 Apr 2025 – 25 Oct 2025
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
| SQ301 A350 LH | ||||||||
| MAN 11:15 | SIN 07:40* | ||||||||
| Duration: 13:25 | |||||||||
* Next day
It’s a bit soon to get too excited, since this route has rarely been tested as a standalone destination outside peak season, but Business Class cabin demand is probably lower than for London flights, meaning Manchester could be a good Saver redemption option, now that 42 Business Class seats will no longer be shared with Singapore – Houston passengers.
London Gatwick goes daily
Singapore Airlines launched five times weekly non-stop services between Changi Airport and London’s secondary Gatwick Airport, in West Sussex, back in June this year.
However, as we reported long before the route even began, the airline really wanted to serve this new route on a daily basis, but was knocked back by the slots regulator, who offered SIA only five timings per week initially.
SIA has since secured a daily slot pair at Gatwick, effective from the start of the northern winter season in late October 2024, but the carrier is only taking advantage of that boost from late March 2025, for the peak summer season next year.
This will see daily flights on the route, hiking non-stop dedicated UK services to 40 per week in each direction, a record high for Singapore Airlines.
- London Gatwick: 7 departures per week
- London Heathrow: 28 departures per week
- Manchester: 5 departures per week
Here’s how the London Gatwick schedule looks for the northern winter season from late October 2024 to late March 2025:
Singapore London Gatwick
27 Oct 2024 – 28 Mar 2025
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
| SQ312 A350 LH | ||||||||
| SIN 23:55 | LGW 06:25* | ||||||||
| Duration: 14:30 | |||||||||
* Next day
London Gatwick Singapore
27 Oct 2024 – 28 Mar 2025
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
| SQ309 A350 LH | ||||||||
| LGW 09:20 | SIN 06:15* | ||||||||
| Duration: 12:55 | |||||||||
* Next day
And here’s how it then looks from late March 2025 onwards, once daily services commence:
Singapore London Gatwick
30 Mar 2025 – 26 Oct 2025
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
| SQ312 A350 LH | ||||||||
| SIN 23:55 | LGW 06:25* | ||||||||
| Duration: 13:30 | |||||||||
* Next day
London Gatwick Singapore
30 Mar 2025 – 26 Oct 2025
| Days | |||||||||
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |||
| SQ309 A350 LH | ||||||||
| LGW 10:15 | SIN 06:20* | ||||||||
| Duration: 13:05 | |||||||||
* Next day
There’s no SilverKris lounge at Gatwick, but as we recently reported the airline uses the No1 Lounge there.
Though West Sussex sounds like the middle of nowhere, Gatwick is still well connected to central London by road and rail, with regular train services operating from an integrated terminal train station into the capital, taking about half an hour.
Here’s how award pricing looks on SIA’s London Gatwick route, which also applies to the carrier’s Heathrow flights.
| KrisFlyer Redemption Rates Singapore ⇆ London | ||
| Saver | Advantage | |
| Economy | 42,000 | 70,000 |
| Premium Economy | 71,000 | n/a |
| Business | 103,500 | 123,000 |
| First / Suites | 141,000 | 225,500 |
We’ve seen some generous award space lately on SIA’s Gatwick flights compared to the Heathrow ones, especially in Business Class, so do make sure this option is included in your searches for UK trips.
Summary
Singapore Airlines is ending flights to and from Houston in the USA after 17 years of service, with the route initially served via Moscow, but for the last decade or so via Manchester in the UK.
While that will reduce the airline’s count of US airports from six to five, the good news is that Manchester retains five times weekly flights, with a capacity (and potential award space) boost, now that it will no longer ‘share’ seats with Singapore – Houston passengers.
For the UK as a whole there’s also a much-anticipated increase for London flights, with the capital’s second airport Gatwick picking up a daily service from late March 2025, now that SIA has been given the nod for additional slot rights.
Gatwick doesn’t seem to be getting as much Business Class demand as Heathrow, perhaps understandably, making it one to search for Saver award space, especially with daily flights in play from next year.
(Cover Photo: Maxim Grohotov / Shutterstock)
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