Singapore debuts transpacific all-business-class

Singapore Airlines on Thursday kicks off the first-ever all-business-class service across the Pacific, using an Airbus A340-500 with 100 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration for the non-stop flights between Newark and Singapore. The new service is being gradually phased in on the route, and won’t be offered on a daily basis until the end of June. The same service will also be phased in on the non-stop Los Angeles-Singapore route, increasing to daily frequency by the end of September. Once the all-business schedule is fully operational, economy class passengers will have to take one-stop service between New York-Singapore and LAX-Singapore. The new service features Singapore’s latest business class upgrades, with seats that are 30 inches wide (“almost 50 percent wider than most products in this class,” a spokesman said) and that recline into fully flat beds. The airline’s Krisworld in-flight entertainment system has also been upgraded on the all-business flights. Besides offering passengers 1,000 “on-demand” entertainment options, the system also lets them plug in their own iPods or iPhones and play their personal playlists. Passengers can also plug in personal USB thumb drives to see their photos or watch videos. And they can take advantage of unique offerings from the Singapore system, like Berlitz foreign language lessons or Zagat hotel and restaurant guides.

Air Midwest shuts down

Air Midwest, a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group that serves a number of small cities with 19-seat Beech 1900D aircraft, announced that it will discontinue all operations due to “record high fuel prices, insufficient demand and a difficult operating environment.” It is not related to Midwest Airlines. The little airline had been trying to get by with the help of Essential Air Service subsidies from the federal government, but even that was not enough to keep it out of the red “for the last several years,” said Mesa Air Group CEO Jonathan Orenstein. The company released the following schedule for the termination of Air Midwest services: On May 23 it will end eastern U.S. operations, at Lewisburg, W. Va.; DuBois, Pa.; Franklin, Pa.; and Athens, Ga. Effective May 31, Air Midwest will stop flying at Ely, Nev.; Merced and Visalia, Calif.; Prescott and Kingman, Ariz.; and Farmington, N.NM. And on June 30, the airline will end service at Columbia, Joplin and Kirksville, Mo.; Grand Island and McCook, Neb.; and Little Rock, Ark.