When Singapore Airlines first revealed their new cabin products for the Boeing 777-300ER in 2013 they also quickly followed up with an announcement regarding an ambitious refit schedule for existing aircraft, forecasting the whole fleet of these planes would be refitted by September 2016.
It’s not uncommon for such projects to slip and SIA certainly had their fair share of upsets along the way, not least a 777-300ER wing fire in June 2016 which grounded a plane (9V-SWB) for 5 months and then a tow truck fire in November 2017 which wrote off a 777-200 (9V-SQK).
These events won’t have helped overall fleet availability and go some way to explaining the delays in completing refits on the older 19 of these 777-300ER aircraft that required it from the outset.
A little over two years late isn’t very impressive of course, but finally the end is in sight as the last two aircraft with the older 2006 seat products will be leaving service on 28th October 2018 to receive the newer seats.
The seats
What many won’t miss about these aircraft is the older 2006 First and Business Class seats. Here’s a reminder of what we’re losing on the older 777-300ERs:
And here’s why people are generally much happier with the refitted 777-300ER Version 2 aircraft: