Earlier in the summer, Singapore Airlines announced that they would begin operating ‘fifth freedom’ flights  from Copenhagen to Rome three times per week as a tag-on to their existing Singapore to Copenhagen service. This was an intriguing and exciting development in European aviation - providing a great opportunity to try out Singapore Airlines A350 Business Class at a reasonable price. Let’s dive right in.

What’s a fifth freedom flight?

For the uninitiated, a fifth freedom flight is when an airline is able to carry passengers between two destinations outside of its own country as a continuation of a flight from their originating country. The passenger do not need to have continued from the airline’s origin country to fly it. 

Why are Singapore Airlines operating this flight?

We can thank the pandemic for this. Prior to Covid-19, Singapore Airlines operated both Rome and Copenhagen as non-stop flights to Singapore. Due to lower passenger loads on the direct flights, they are operating as a stopper service to improve profitability of the flights. Since Europe was more open for cross-border travel earlier in the summer, it also proved a popular method to improve revenue from the flight by allowing passengers to book Copenhagen to/from Rome only. 

Airport experience

We arrived super early at Copenhagen Airport and it was chaotic. It was around the time of the start of autumn holiday season meaning lots of families travelling abroad. There was no dedicated Singapore Airlines check-in desk at Copenhagen Airport so we headed towards their Star Alliance partner SAS at their SAS Business/SAS Plus/Star Alliance Gold desk. It took around 20 minutes to complete check in due to the manual document checks required during Covid. 

Security checks were equally busy but, thanks to our Business Class tickets, we could use the CPH Express lanes to get through security quicker.

I’ll cover the SAS Lounge, which is the designated facility for Singapore Airlines’ passengers at Copenhagen Airport, in a future review. But here’s a sneak peek at some of the images.

Our flight was delayed by about one hour due to the incoming aircraft diverting it’s routing to avoid Afghan airspace. Whilst I understand that this is to improve safety for the aircraft, it’s been around two months since Afghan airspace has been unsafe to use so one would expect the flight timings to have been updated in that time. Usefully, the Singapore Airlines app had advised us the night before our flight would be delayed.

Our documents were checked once again at the gate. For entrance into Italy, all passengers are required to show proof of vaccination or recovery and the submission of an EU Digital Passenger Locator Form (dPLF). I advise getting to the gate early since the queue for document checks were very long for a plane as big as the A350. 

The flight itself operates as an intra-Schengen service. If you are travelling on the Singapore-Copenhagen leg and onwards to Rome, you are required to depart the aircraft and have your visa check completed at Copenhagen Airport. If you are travelling exclusively between Copenhagen and Rome, you will not be leaving the Schengen area. This is important for those with Schengen Visas as taking this flight will not count towards your entry/exit into the EU as you never leave the territory. 

The plane itself is parked at the non-Schengen zone of the airport but the gate Copenhagen to Rome passengers are sent to is in the Schengen zone. Passengers are squeezed into a bus (extremely Covid-safe!!) and sent across the airport to a set of stairs to get onto the aircraft. It’s quite rare to board a plane of this size by the stairs. 

Although I have no specific figures, the load factor on this plane was around 70% - with almost all of these passengers comprising people travelling exclusively between Copenhagen and Rome, likely to get some autumn sunshine. 

The cabin 

Although on this flight we were in Business Class, here’s a few shots of the Economy cabin:

As well as some shots of the Premium Economy cabin:

There is no First Class operated on the Singapore Airlines A350 with Business Class being the most premium cabin. 

The seat

As I sat into seat 16A, my first impression was wow - what a beautiful ambience and luxurious seat. Covered in tones of brown, grey and bronze, it creates a luxurious atmosphere and tone as you would expect from a premium airline like Singapore Airlines. 

The seat is super wide - a full ten inches wider than British Airways’ seat on their A350. If you’re worried about the seat being too tight, you need not be concerned about it on Singapore Airlines.  Equally, legroom is excellent here as per almost every airline on their long haul aircraft. Reclining mode is very flexible allowing you to adjust the seat back and lower portion into a relaxing position. Here you can then stretch out into the little cubby underneath the screen. For me, wearing shoes whilst stretching out was impossible to get comfortable - however, it was relatively comfortable once I took them off. I can see why many people reviewers complain about this but for most travellers, you will be very happy with the experience you’re getting. Sure it would be better if there was more room for your feet, but then that could impact elsewhere on the experience. If you are really concerned about this, then attempt to get the forward-most seat in each cabin, also known as the bulkhead, as these have a much larger area to rest your feet.

Unlike many other airlines, the seat itself does not recline directly into bed mode for sleeping. Due to the short duration of the flight, I didn’t try the bed out - but it is accessed by requesting one of the cabin crew to set it up for you by flipping the seat over to reveal a dedicated bed. 

Bedding, blankets and ample pillows were provided and stored behind the back of the seat. Again, as we were only on a two hour journey, these didn’t prove particularly necessary. 

There’s lots of storage on Singapore Airlines’ A350 seat, all to the window-side of the seat. These flip open to reveal space to hold personal items, as well as airline-provided headphones and Covid-related care kit. Further storage can be found in and around the entertainment screen, alongside a sneaky little mirror if you need one during the journey. 

In-flight entertainment and Wi-Fi

Singapore Airlines offers an excellent in-flight entertainment (IFE) system called KrisWorld, onboard all their flights (besides some Asian short-haul journeys on ex-Silk Air planes). Although not quite as extensive as Qatar Airways and Emirates, there was a large, varied amount of content available to watch - including British, American, Singaporean, Filipino and many more films. If you’re just taking the short flight from Copenhagen to Rome, you will definitely not have trouble finding anything to watch. The IFE also offers an interactive 3D map to track your journey but no on-board cameras, which were missing on this A350 unfortunately. 

Frustratingly, the screen itself is not touch-enabled but has to be controlled exclusively by the remote control. This is not a big deal but it is an odd decision by Singapore Airlines as the remote is quite finicky and very sensitive. The screen itself is more than close enough to be touch sensitive and would probably make navigating the IFE a lot quicker for passengers. 

Over-ear headphones and covers for the earpads are provided - they are noise cancelling and of a decent quality, but not a match for Bose or Bang & Olufsen headphones.

Wi-Fi is offered to passengers through the KrisWorld network. Business Class and PPS Club passengers get 100mb of data for each leg of their journey - which goes extremely quickly. Speeds were fine, but certainly nothing noteworthy. If you are travelling in Economy Class, it may be worth signing up for KrisFlyer as they provide 30mb of free WiFi usage. Whilst it is a pitiful amount of data, its better than nothing. If you are looking to pay for WiFi, charges can be seen below and do note that it is only valid for that flight - if you are connecting onto another flight in Singapore, no remaining data allowance will be transferred. 

• Chat USD 3.99

• Pro (100MB) USD 9.99

• Premium (200MB) USD 15.99

• Surf (3 hours) USD 15.99

Food and beverages

The Singapore Airlines food experience on this journey was subpar - and you will see a common theme throughout all the reviews of this flight. Singapore Airlines offers only a Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese or Mushroom Ciabatta - tasty, but pretty poor for a premium airline. I understand that this is purely a tag-on flight and the passengers who are continuing on from the Singapore-Copenhagen sector will likely have already over-indulged - it would be better to offer a little more. Most European Business Class flights of a similar length would offer a hot meal - and I would argue that even British Airways Club Europe had a better meal service than Singapore Airlines.

Beverages, however, were more hopeful with the full menu options available. Regular coffee and tea were only available with the meal, however ‘premium’ coffee options like cappuccinos, lattes and iced coffee were available for the rest of the flight. This was in addition to premium TWG tea, alcoholic beverages including Laurent-Perrier Champagne and cocktails, as well as full-sized soft drinks. 

Amenities, toilets and cleanliness

All passengers are provided with a Covid care kit prior to boarding the aircraft. This includes a mask, hand sanitiser and sanitising wipe - with it provided to passengers across all cabins. This is in stark contrast to many European airlines who seemed to have withdrawn providing any kits to improve passenger safety. As noted previously, there was another care kit in the seat storage - meaning I ended up with two, which probably would have been useful on a long-haul flight due to the need to change masks. 

This flight does not include an amenity kit as standard - however I asked one of the cabin crew if they had any available and they happily provided one. Featuring Penhalligan’s branding, it’s quite a standard affair but is quite premium in nature featuring lip balm, facial mist and hand lotion. Singapore Airlines has only recently introduced amenity kits in Business Class after many years of not following other industry players - but it is a welcome addition to the experience. They also include a useful little plastic bag, just in case you are connecting flights and need to declare the liquid items at security.

Over to the on-board toilets and they are a pretty standard affair - but thankfully extremely clean and well-maintained by the cabin crew. There are additional amenities in the bathroom itself including Penhaligan’s perfume, a large facial mist and moisturiser as well as Singapore Airlines-branded toothbrush, toothpaste, combs and razors. They were extremely well-stocked, particularly considering that they didn’t really need to have these for the short flight.

The whole aircraft seemed meticulously clean, when compared to other airlines I’ve taken recently, and is probably more a reflection of stricter Covid measures in Singapore over Europe. Despite this, I still wiped over all the touchable services with my own disinfectant wipes. 

Service

Singapore Airlines’ Cabin Crew was excellent on this hop from Copenhagen to Rome - even though I’m sure they was a little tired from the long-haul flight. They were attentive and responsive to when we pressed the call-bell as well as proactively offering extra drinks, pillows and more. I can’t praise this crew enough - and they made the experience even better. I only note that the crew are very professional and methodic in how they perform service. They differ from UK airlines like BA and Virgin who have a more bouncy, laidback service offering - but also to Qatar Airways whose cabin crew I find to be excellent, but a little uncomfortable due to how formal it is. This is neither good nor bad, instead just a personal preference. 

How much was this journey?

We paid DKK 1999 for this journey from Copenhagen to Rome - equivalent to around GBP 230. This was a Business Lite fare which included 40kg of luggage, complimentary seat selection and 125% KrisFlyer Miles awarded for this journey. Pricing for this route is similar to the other legacy carrier who operate this flight, SAS, but who offer a severely degraded experience on a narrow-body A320 in EuroBusiness. 

If you are paying with KrisFlyer Miles, you’ll be paying 30,500 miles for the saver level or 35,000 for the advantage level. If you can pay GBP 230 for the flight, I would save using points as the journey is not prohibitively expensive in cash. 

Should you experience it yourself?

Travelling from Copenhagen to Rome or vice versa until April 2022 and can be flexible on the date you travel? Definitely try this out. This kind of travel experience is a rarity in Europe and can give you a taste of how flying is generally so much better from Asian carriers. You will need to be flexible though as there is only three flights per week on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday from Copenhagen, then Monday, Wednesday and Saturday from Rome. There may also be the added complication soon that the Copenhagen-Singapore  flight will be designated as a Vaccinated Travel Lane, requiring passengers to be fully vaccinated as well as possible testing requirements. This is unconfirmed but could impact you.

I probably wouldn’t advise taking this flight specifically to try Singapore Airlines, since you will not get the full experience, and besides Copenhagen to Rome isn’t exactly the most popular route in the world. If you’re looking for other Singapore Airlines’ fifth freedom routes, they operate Frankfurt-New York as well as Manchester-Houston as alternate options to receive the full experience without travelling to Singapore. Let’s hope they introduce more in the future and show European airlines how things are done properly!