Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) has been granted permission by the Japanese authorities to operate fifth freedom flights between Japan and New York, according to Singapore news channel CNA. The decision was announced by Kazuyoshi Akaba, Japanese Minister for Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) during a visit to Singapore on December 30.

Any potential route to New York could be flown by Singapore Airlines (SIA) in partnership with ANA - All Nippon Airways (NH, Tokyo Haneda), something which was alluded to by Akaba in his briefing: "We sincerely hope that this will be a new milestone, a new step in possible cooperation opportunities for Singapore and All Nippon Airways in codesharing flights and other areas.”

Awarding fifth freedoms to SIA means that it can now perform flights from Singapore Changi to New York with a stopover in Tokyo with full onward passenger traffic rights. JAL - Japan Airlines, All Nippon, and United Airlines all currently offer direct daily services between Tokyo Narita and New York JFK and New York Newark respectively. The Japanese carriers also fly non-stop from Tokyo Haneda to JFK with a daily frequency.

SIA is well versed in fifth freedom sectors, with several routes already in operation to the US, including one via Narita already:

In addition to these city pairs, SIA also currently flies non-stop from Singapore to Los Angeles (10x weekly), Newark (daily), San Francisco (10x weekly), and Seattle Tacoma International (4x weekly).