Singapore Airlines Inaugural flight Stockholm ✈ Moscow

Welcome to Airflygo we are happy to share our Singapore airline Inaugural flight review. Last year Singapore airlines (SQ) started flying from Stockholm to Singapore via Moscow. Singapore announced in December 2016 that they would add Stockholm to their fifth freedom network. Singapore airlines have been flying to/from Moscow (DME) since few years back using Boeing B777-300ER but they changed to the new Airbus A350-900. Even better this flight review is out on our Video Review as well.

This route means a new fifth freedom route. We at Airflygo love fifth freedom routes, especially when it’s operated by one of the world’s top best airlines. Not only that but also operated by the new Airbus A350-900. For those of you who are not familiar with fifth freedom routes, it is when an airline operates a flight between two foreign countries (by “foreign” I mean countries where the airline isn’t based). And the airline have the right to fly and operate flights between the foreign countries like this specific Singapore Airline flight between Stockholm and Moscow which later continues to Singapore.

Singapore Airlines operates 5x weekly flights between Singapore, Moscow and Stockholm. The flight operates as a continuation of their existing flight between Singapore and Moscow, though it is possible for passengers to book a ticket exclusively between Moscow and Stockholm like we did. The entire flight operates with the following schedule:

SQ362 Singapore to Moscow departing 12:20AM arriving 6:00AM SQ362 Moscow to Stockholm departing 7:15AM arriving 8:25AM SQ361 Stockholm to Moscow departing 10:25AM arriving 1:30PM

SQ361 Moscow to Singapore departing 3:05 PM arriving 6:20AM (+1 day)

My flight SQ361 Stockholm to Moscow would depart 11:25AM arriving 1:30PM in Moscow

SQ361 Stockholm to Moscow will cover a distance of ~760 miles, with a flight time of 2 hours westbound.

As mentioned earlier this flights are operated using Airbus A350-900 aircrafts, featuring 253 seats, including 42 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 187 economy seats.

Planning As soon as we heard about this new route we knew we had to be part of the Inaugural flight. Due to our schedule we did not to fly all the way to Singapore instead experienced the Stockholm to Moscow fifth freedom route.

Booking We were not looking for any kinds of cheap or promo fares on this flight which meant we were ready to pay whatever it would have cost.

We also had 3 cabin class choices to choose from, which were business class, premium economy or economy class. Premium economy on this route was full. The premium economy was going for $470 USD (oneway) on this fifth freedom route. Than comes Business class which we thought of booking but soon realised that it would not be something for us as we were going to move around the aircraft a lot. As mentioned before the price did not matter but the flight time did. Business class was going for $700 USD (oneway) on this 2 hour fifth freedom route Now there was only 1 option left which was Economy class. Economy class was suiting us very well on this short flight. Economy class was going for $368 USD or 3120 Swedish krona. we went ahead and booked the $368 USD one-way ticket from Singapore airlines website and shortly received confirmation .

30TH MAY The day is here 30TH may it was my flight was scheduled to depart at 11:25. Waking up in the morning was no problem, the first thing i did was to check my flight status. Everything seemed to be fine

I left my house around 6:35AM. There are 2 options for me to get to the airport option number one is Public transport ( SL metro to T-Centralen & changing to Arlanda Express or to SJ Train) The second option is by car. Both options takes me roughly 1 hour to reach Stockholm Arlanda (ARN). I choose the second option, car in the morning can be annoying considering the morning traffic but i still went for it even though option one would have been faster in the morning. I reached Arlanda Terminal 5 around 8:05 AM. It takes little longer than normal in the morning due the morning traffic.

My flight was departing from Terminal 5, majority of the international flights depart from Terminal 5

The check in area was decorated with balloons and a lot of SQ advertising, you could really tell that this was a inaugural flight At the check in desk there was a problem with my visa which was not going through the system, after some 10 tries and 15 minutes sorting out some paper work it all worked out (there was a problem with their system) We Swedish citizens need to apply for visa when visiting Russia ( Swedish citizens can not travel to Russia without a valid visa unless you are Russian). Me getting the visa was a real headache, the embassy required insurances and few other documents showing proof that i'm a citizen and work or study in Sweden plus onwards tickets that shows that i will be leaving Russia before the visa expires. I applied for the transit visa which ended up costing me little more than $100 USD. The price varies depending on which visa and where you apply it.

I received my boarding pass as well as the gate ''party'' invitation

As you might have seen in our Flight Review videos i made my way to gate F69 where i saw the arrival of the Airbus A350-900 (9V-SME) aircraft and witnessed water salute ceremony

As Gate F69 is non schengen i passed though the passport control, the agent checked my passport and Visa and let me through using the escalator i went up to the second floor and saw a long red carpet with more balloons, it sure looked beautiful Before entering the gate event I showed my passport and after a quick third visa check i join the event where there is singing and dancing going on. There was complimentary snacks including Vegetarian springrolls and alcohol free Singapore sling (Singapore Sling is a gin-based cocktail from Singapore.) Vegetarian springrolls tasted great As you saw in the video there was also Singapore airline branded chocolate brownies of course i tried the offering

There was also Singapore airline Crew which was there to take pictures with whoever wanted onQuite a lot of people were taking the opportunity to take picture with SQ crew including a friend of mine, i was invited by the wonderful crew to take picture with them To celebrate this new route Singapore airline crew had live singing performance before boarding which was amazing, As you saw in my video they were really talented.

Few Speeches were held one of them were by the Regional Vice President at Singapore Airline Mr. Subhas Menon. Subhas said that Stockholm is an important addition to Singapore Airlines network. Flights to Sweden will enlarge our European network to 11 countries and 15 destinations”

The Ribbon was cut by Ann Christin Linde, which is a Swedish politician and EU Minister of Commerce in the Government of Löfven.

Boarding started soon after at around 10:45

Business class followed by premium economy and at the last economy, but due my contacts at the airport i was one of the first to board The boarding pass was checked by the crew and i was welcomed by my surname. I gotta say that it was a nice warm welcome indeed for an Economy class. Stepping inside, the ambience of the aircraft i could tell that the design was pretty nice and felt good. I made my way down to my pre booked Seat 36K. I passed though the Business class cabin there is 42 seats in business class with 1-2-1 layout The Seats are 130 cm width with 136 degree foldability recline. The IFE screen is 46 cm and includes USB 110v AC power port as well.

after Business comes Premium economy which have its own mini cabin There are 24 seats in premium economy with 2-4-2 layout. The seats are 95 cm width with 125 degree foldability recline. The IFE is 33 cm with touch screen. USB charger and 110v AC power port.

After premium economy the rest is 187 Economy class seats in a 3-3-3 layout.

These seats are 81 cm width with 115 graders degree recline. IFE is 28 cm (11.1 inch) with touch screen. On Each seat there was a blanket and a nice pillow sitting on my seat 46K, nice 11.1 inch IFE. I did only use the LIVE airshow through out the flight, I checked out the kris system which had wide range of movies.

The row I was seated on was empty and I had the 3 seats to myself which was a great start. Once all the passengers were on board, the Captain came online to mention his honor to be our captain on this inaugural flight adding details about our flight down to Moscow with a flight time of 2 hours. The smiling crew also came around to offering steaming hot towels. We pushed back on time and were once again met by the fire trucks I was a surprised to see a second water salute before takeoff

We made our way to Runway 19R which is the longest Runway at Arlanda with a length of 3301 meters. We took off on time Banking west towards Russia As soon as the seat belt sign went off i started exploring the Cabin, the flight was only 40% full The Economy class cabin had a very unhealthy load with the most seats being emty The rear galley offered a lot of space and the middle compartment was something new As you saw in the flight video the meal service had started and i made my way back to my seat Menus was distributed The lunch service consisted of two options which were smoked salmon sandwich or Swedish meatballs with lingonberries sauce I choose Swedish meatballs with lingonberries sauce The meal was not bad, they could have added Dessert or add something to accompany the hot meal would had been appreciated.

champagne was handed out after the meal service, After telling the cabin crew about my purpose of this flight they really found it interesting and came by with souvenirs.

The captain took out 15 minutes from the cockpit to come and chat with me after he realised he had seen me on a Swedish channel prior the flight and the crew were also interested in what i was doing. I was surprised that he managed to recognize me from the TV show. 2 Cabin crew members gave me a personal tour of the Aircraft and as you saw in the video i checked out Business class. Before i knew it the 2 hour flight had come to an end, and we had started our descent…. descending towards Moscow Domededovo Airport. Moscow have 4 main Airports We were holding for 20 minutes before getting clearance to land on Runway 32L. The captain announced our arrival into Moscow, everyone had to disembark in Moscow including the passengers heading to Singapore. The landing was smooth.

upon our arrival we were once again met up by fire trucks and this was going to me my third water salute for the day. The fire trucks where to close to the Aircraft wing which resulted that the water hit the winglet.

The good flight had come to an end, i disembarked the Aircraft and here we have a closer and clearer look at the A350

Everything good comes to an end, watch the comprehensive review, ENJOY Watch the full video