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I sure do love a fun fifth freedom route^[1], especially when it’s operated by one of the world’s best airlines. For those of you not familiar with fifth freedom routes, it’s when an airline operates a flight between two foreign countries (by “foreign” I mean countries where the airline isn’t based). Examples include Singapore Airlines’ flight between New York and Frankfurt^[2], Cathay Pacific’s flight between New York and Vancouver^[3], LATAM’s flight between Madrid and Frankfurt^[4], etc.

Singapore Airlines has just announced their newest fifth freedom route, and it’s a fun one.

Singapore Airlines will operate 5x weekly flights between Moscow, Russia, and Stockholm, Sweden, as of May 30, 2017. This flight will operate as a continuation of their existing flight between Singapore and Moscow, though passengers will be able to book a ticket exclusively between Moscow and Stockholm if they’d like. 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 3:00PM arriving 6:15AM (+1 day)

The Moscow to Stockholm  flight covers a distance of ~760 miles, with a flight time of 2hr10min westbound and 2hr5min eastbound.

The flight will be operated using a brand new Airbus A350-900 aircraft^[5], featuring 253 seats, including 42 business class seats, 24 premium economy seats, and 187 economy seats.

Singapore Airlines’ A350 business class

Per Singapore Airlines’ press release^[6], SAS will also codeshare on this new route, as this will operate as part of a joint venture between SAS and Singapore Airlines.

This is an extremely comfortable way to fly within Europe, given that intra-Europe business class typically only consists of economy seats with a blocked middle seat and slightly improved service. So Singapore’s fully flat beds with direct aisle access are a huge upgrade over that.