The new Airbus A350-900 ULR (which stands for "ultra-long range") has successfully completed its first test flight on April 23, 2018.

It took off from the Airbus headquarters at Toulouse for a brief five-hour flight.

It will be delivered in the third quarter of the year to Singapore Airlines (SQ), the launch customer of the aircraft.

The aircraft is built to fly up to 11,160 miles (about 18,000km), an increase of more than 1,800 miles over the standard A-350.

The latest A350-900 ULR is a plane you can almost spend a whole day on.

It will allow SQ to revive the world's longest regularly-scheduled non-stop flight: A 19-hour journey from Singapore to New York.

The aircraft will be in a two-class configuration, with business class and premium economy, though the exact number of seats are yet to be announced.

SIA has ordered seven of the planes.

World's longest regularly scheduled non-stop flight

This will not be the first time Singapore Airlines operated a non-stop flight to New York.

In 2004, SQ introduced Flight SQ21, using an A340-500 to fly the record-breaking distance of 15,344 km (9,534 miles).

The record was immediately broken when the return Flight SQ22 flew the current record of 16,600 km (10,314 miles).

It was originally configured with 64 business class and 117 executive economy seats.

In 2008, it was reconfigured into an all-business class layout with 100 seats, citing "consistently strong demand from business travellers".

This was the longest non-stop route in the world, taking around 19 hours at its longest.

In fact, the route was so long that the airline installed special lockers on the aircraft to store the bodies of people who died en route, since the flight's routing over the Pacific Ocean and the North Pole left little room for unscheduled stops.

Fortunately, it was never used.

By October 2012, SQ announced the termination of its ultra-long haul routes to New York and Los Angeles, retiring its fleet of five A340-500s to Airbus.

While SQ claimed that the retiring of the planes is in line with its policy to maintain a young fleet, industry experts observed that the non-stop services between Singapore and the United States has fallen short of revenue expectations, despite the switch to an all-business class configuration in an attempt to boost yields.

What is different?

The A340-500 was a notorious fuel-guzzler in the aviation world several years ago.

Essentially, it traded fuel efficiency for an extended range.

In 2008, jet fuel prices doubled compared to the year before. Jet fuel prices then remained consistently high for the next few years, until it became unfeasible to run these long routes anymore.

The plane had to carry 220,000 litres of jet fuel on the Singapore-New York route, which is 10 times the weight of the passengers.

The aircraft's fuel inefficiency, especially on such ultra-long haul routes, prompted much criticism.

In 2011, the Chief Executive of Air France-KLM referred to it as "a flying tanker with a few people on board".

The new A350-900 ULR boasts aerodynamic improvements in the fuselage and the wings, as well as extended winglets.

The plane also has a modified fuel system that improves its fuel-carrying capacity by 24,000 litres, without the need to add additional fuel tanks.

Airbus says that these improvements will lead to a 25 percent reduction in fuel burn, as well as lower maintenance costs.

Keeping up with the competition

Advances in technology and lower fuel prices are among the key reasons for the revival of direct US flights.

However, staying competitive is also a primary concern.

In 2016, United Airlines announced that they will launch a non-stop flight between San Francisco and Singapore, which was launched later that year.

A year later, it also announced a non-stop flight between Los Angeles and Singapore.

In response, SQ also announced a direct flight between San Francisco and Singapore, though it did not launch a non-stop Los Angeles route of its own.

Thus, the New York route is important for SQ to even the playing field, as no airline currently flies the New York-Singapore route non-stop.

An asset

If the route proves successful, the A350-900 ULR can be a great asset to SQ.

The plane's extended range makes a lot of non-stop destinations available from Singapore, such as Chicago, Boston or even Sau Paulo, which may give it a competitive edge.

However, the question remains whether the route can be profitable.

Such ultra-long haul routes are often expensive to operate, since the aircraft has to carry a lot of fuel. This means that the aircraft cannot carry as many passengers.

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With no economy class, this route is unlikely to be popular with leisure travellers.

Instead, business travel will likely drive up the bulk of the demand for this route, since passengers will have to pay a premium for these non-stop flights.

SQ is expected to launch non-stop flights to New York by the end of 2018, with non-stop flights to Los Angeles planned for next year.

Top image via Airbus

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