There is news that seems good for another city, although, looked at closely, it is also excellent for Barcelona. This is one of them. As of October 26, 2026, Singapore Airlines (repeatedly chosen as the best airline in the world) will operate five weekly frequencies between Singapore and the Iberian Peninsula with a structural novelty: all flights will enter directly through El Prat. Without a stopover in Milan. Without sharing seat inventory with the Italian market. Barcelona, and only Barcelona, as the gateway to Spain for one of the most prestigious companies in the sector.
The extension to Madrid (which thus recovers connection with Singapore after more than twenty years) is, in any case, good news that comes thanks to Barcelona. And it is no coincidence: the tradition of medium and long-haul flights to the east with a stopover in El Prat is old. Iberia itself, when it operated routes to Athens, Cairo, Istanbul, Saudi Arabia or the first flights to Tokyo, made planes depart from Madrid but stopped them in the Catalan capital before heading east. Singapore Airlines does nothing new. It does what makes geographical and commercial sense.
We know this company well at The New Barcelona Post. Last January we interviewed Kevin Lee, director of Singapore Airlines for the Iberian Peninsula, and today we can confirm that Lee has many reasons to celebrate. Not only because of Madrid: what really changes for Barcelona is the elimination of the stopover in Milan Malpensa on three of the five weekly flights. Until now, Lee managed the commercial inventory of the plane sharing seats with the Italian market. As of October 27, the Lombardy airport has its own route and daily frequencies from Singapore. And Barcelona is now alone at the head of the Iberian route, with five weekly direct flights from El Prat to Singapore-Changi.
The triangulation that does work
These aerial geometries do not always work out well. It is worth remembering Ethiopian Airlines' attempt with its Barcelona–Addis Ababa route. The logic was attractive: connect El Prat with the powerful network of the African airline. The problem was the directionthe flights departed from Barcelona heading west, landed in Madrid with almost two hours of layover in Barajas to load more passengers and fuel, and only then turned towards West Africa. Sometimes, passengers who boarded in Barcelona would see the city again from the window hours later, flying over it on their way to the Ethiopian capital. An operational absurdity that never quite worked out.Singapore Airlines does exactly the opposite. Singapore–Barcelona–Madrid is a continuous line: El Prat as a natural destination for Southern Europe, and Madrid as an additional market that joins an existing route that now improves for everyone. By the way, it is not the first time that Singapore Airlines has used Barcelona as an intermediate stop: the El Prat–São Paulo flight in codeshare with Spanair, which operated between 2011 and 2016, is part of the history of significant intercontinental flights from Catalonia. The company knows that Barcelona works.
The schedules
Thus, from the end of October, flight SQ388 will depart from Singapore at 23:30 (local time), land in El Prat at 06:40 and continue to Madrid, where it arrives at 08:50. The return flight, SQ387, will depart from Barajas at 10:00, stop in Barcelona at 11:15 and begin the long return journey from El Prat at 12:35, arriving in Singapore the next day at 08:25. The aircraft is an Airbus A350-900LR with 42 seats in Business Class, 24 in Premium Economy and 187 in Economy. Tickets will be on sale from June 2026, pending the usual regulatory approval.Madrid returns to the Singapore Airlines map, although the big news is that Barcelona is even better connected with Southeast Asia, with this increase in direct flights.
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