Singapore Airlines Fleet: April 2020

As the first SIA aircraft are flown to long-term storage and the COVID-19 pandemic produces a skeleton flying network, this month we take a slightly different angle on our regular Singapore Airlines fleet update, focusing in detail on the latest trend across the industry – aircraft storage.

With five SIA aircraft types taken out of service altogether this month, including all Airbus A330s and Airbus A380s, the interesting fact is that among many other aircraft types the majority of aircraft are still flying.

We also take a look at why the airline is favouring planes with the biggest cargo holds in the current climate.

Headline numbers

Here are the Singapore Airlines passenger fleet totals at 19th April 2020.

The official registered aircraft data in combination with analysis of actual flight movements over the last few weeks allows us to determine the actual ‘in service’ fleet (available to the airline) of 127 planes at 19th April 2020, 63 of which are currently active.

Click here to see the official CAAS list of registered aircraft in Singapore at 31st March 2020.

Singapore Airlines Fleet at 19th April 2020

This table shows the Singapore Airlines fleet including how many of each aircraft type are legally registered (‘Registered’), available to the airline (‘In Service’) and currently operating revenue passenger or cargo flights (‘Active’).

Type	Registered	In Service	Active
A330-300 (full details)	9	8	0
A350-900 (full details)	26	26	16
A350-900 Regional (full details)	15	15	10
A350-900 ULR (full details)	7	7	0
A380-800 v1 (full details)	6	6	0
A380-800 v2 (full details)	6	6	0
A380-800 v3 (full details)	7	7	0
777-200 (full details)	3	1	0
777-200ER (full details)	4	4	0
777-300 (full details)	5	5	4
777-300ER (full details)	27	27	18
787-10 (full details)	15	15	15
Total	130	127	63

Correct at 19th April 2020.

As you can see, five aircraft types in the SIA fleet have entered storage and are not currently being used at all:

• Airbus A330
• Airbus A350 ULR
• Airbus A380
• Boeing 777-200
• Boeing 777-200ER

Differences between registered and in service aircraft in the table above:

No longer in service (but still legally registered)

• A330-300 9V-SSB has already stopped flying for return to lessor. Onward operator is HiFly Malta.
• 777-200 9V-SQJ has already stopped flying for disposal.
• 777-200 9V-SRM has already stopped flying for disposal.

In maintenance or stored

A typically short list of aircraft not active due to maintenance, including brand new planes that haven’t yet entered commercial service, usually makes up a short list in our monthly updates.

That’s all changed given the significant reduction in services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with Singapore Airlines now storing a large number of its aircraft while it runs a skeleton passenger service to only 10 Asia-Pacific cities, plus a handful of US and Europe connections.

The airline is also mounting a number of cargo-only flights using its passenger aircraft.

The other big news this month was the relocation of three of the airline’s Boeing 777-200ER aircraft to long-term storage in Alice Springs, Australia. There they now reside with all 6 SilkAir Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and a pair of Scoot Airbus A320s.

We understand further SIA aircraft are set to follow, with Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage in Alice Springs expanding its capacity to house at least 70 aircraft.

‘Parked: flight-ready’

Many of you will no doubt recall Singapore Airlines’ announcement that it was slashing its capacity by 96% and in turn only keeping 9 of its SIA and SilkAir aircraft flying in the month of April 2020.

Why then are 63 Singapore Airlines passenger aircraft still flying?

Take an A350 Regional (9V-SHE) for example. This aircraft, like others in the A350 Regional fleet, would typically fly around 18 flights per week. In the last three weeks however it has only flown:

• Mon 30th March: SQ802/807 Beijing (cargo)
• Mon 6th April: SQ910/917 Manila (pax)
• Mon 13th April: SQ802/807 Beijing (cargo)
• Sun 19th April: SQ802/807 Beijing (cargo)

That’s 8 flights in 3 weeks, when the aircraft would typically have flown over 50 flights in the same time period. As you can see, the aircraft is flying pretty much once every 7 days.

This does not require it to undergo costly storage preparations – it’s relatively normal for an aircraft not to fly for a week and only a few inexpensive precautions need to be taken if the operator chooses, like some instrument sensor covers which are easily installed and removed.

Effectively, it’s cheaper to fly six A350 Regionals once a week in this parked or ‘active storage’ mode than it is to fly one A350 Regional every day and put the other five in full storage.

It also provides additional operational flexibility to keep around half the fleet in this state of readiness. Aircraft still suffer technical problems even if they only fly once a week, so you have plenty of others at your disposal to use if and when that happens.

It also means SIA can ramp up the flying programme quickly as demand recovers in the coming months; around half its fleet is in operationally-ready state at Changi without the need for time consuming (and again, costly) ‘de-storage’ maintenance actions.

Which aircraft are stored?

Here’s how the fleet activity looked on 18th April 2020, which gives us an indication of which aircraft are stored (last flew > 14 days ago), compared to those in ‘active storage’ (last flew more recently).

‘Last flew’ dates relate to the aircraft’s last revenue passenger or cargo-only flight.

Airbus A330-300

All the airline’s available A330 aircraft are stored in Singapore. None have flown in the last two weeks, with only one aircraft making a single flight in the month of April.

Aircraft	Location	Last flew	Days ago
9V-STC	SIN	2 Apr 20	16
9V-SSC	SIN	27 Mar 20	22
9V-SSD	SIN	31 Mar 20	18
9V-SSE	SIN	27 Mar 20	22
9V-SSF	SIN	13 Mar 20	36
9V-SSG	SIN	23 Mar 20	26
9V-SSH	SIN	28 Mar 20	21
9V-SSI	SIN	25 Nov 19	145

Note that 9V-SSI is still in maintenance at Changi after sustaining tail damage during a landing accident in November 2019.

Airbus A350-900

10 of the airline’s 26-strong 3-class long-haul A350-900 fleet aircraft are stored in Singapore, having not flown for over two weeks.

The other 16 are in ‘active storage’, flying an average of around 2 flights per week (one return service each) since the start of April 2020.

Aircraft	Location	Last flew	Days ago
9V-SMA	SIN	25 Mar 20	24
9V-SMB	SIN	29 Mar 20	20
9V-SMC	SIN	27 Mar 20	22
9V-SMD	SIN	24 Mar 20	25
9V-SME	SIN	15 Mar 20	34
9V-SMF	SIN	25 Mar 20	24
9V-SMG	SIN	24 Mar 20	25
9V-SMH	SIN	25 Mar 20	24
9V-SMI	SIN	3 Apr 20	15
9V-SMJ	SIN	15 Apr 20	3
9V-SMK	SIN	15 Apr 20	3
9V-SML	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SMM	SIN	13 Apr 20	5
9V-SMN	SIN	16 Apr 20	2
9V-SMO	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SMP	SIN	21 Mar 20	28
9V-SMQ	SIN	16 Apr 20	2
9V-SMR	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SMS	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SMT	SIN	16 Apr 20	2
9V-SMU	SIN	15 Apr 20	3
9V-SMV	SIN	13 Apr 20	5
9V-SMW	SIN	16 Apr 20	2
9V-SMY	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SMZ	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SJA	SIN	15 Apr 20	3

Airbus A350-900 Regional

5 of the airline’s 15 Airbus A350-900 Regional fleet aircraft are stored in Singapore, having not flown for over two weeks (in fact, it’s been almost four weeks in all cases).

The other 10 are in ‘active storage’, flying pretty much once per week.

Aircraft	Location	Last flew	Days ago
9V-SHA	SIN	21 Mar 20	28
9V-SHB	SIN	21 Mar 20	28
9V-SHC	SIN	20 Mar 20	29
9V-SHD	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SHE	SIN	13 Apr 20	5
9V-SHF	SIN	13 Apr 20	5
9V-SHG	SIN	15 Apr 20	3
9V-SHH	SIN	22 Mar 20	27
9V-SHI	SIN	24 Mar 20	25
9V-SHJ	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SHK	SIN	16 Apr 20	2
9V-SHL	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SHM	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SHN	SIN	15 Apr 20	3
9V-SHO	SIN	17 Apr 20	1

Airbus A350-900 ULR

All the airline’s 7 Airbus A350-900 ULR aircraft are stored in Singapore, having not flown at all in April and in some cases also sitting idle during the last week in March.

Aircraft	Location	Last flew	Days ago
9V-SGA	SIN	25 Mar 20	24
9V-SGB	SIN	22 Mar 20	27
9V-SGC	SIN	30 Mar 20	19
9V-SGD	SIN	25 Mar 20	24
9V-SGE	SIN	24 Mar 20	25
9V-SGF	SIN	27 Mar 20	22
9V-SGG	SIN	23 Mar 20	26

Non-stop SIA flights to and from Los Angeles this month are being operated by 3-class long-haul Airbus A350-900s, which have so far coped with the non-stop westbound LAX-SIN flight against the headwinds without issue, probably due to low payload allowing more fuel to be carried.

Fun fact: 17 hours 20 minutes is so far the longest LAX-SIN flight time clocked in this month, by A350-900 9V-SJA on 8th April 2020.

Airbus A380-800

No point in splitting the A380-800s into V1/2/3, since all 19 are stored at Changi having not flown since March 2020.

Aircraft	Location	Last flew	Days ago
9V-SKF	SIN	24 Mar 20	25
9V-SKG	SIN	25 Mar 20	24
9V-SKH	SIN	22 Mar 20	27
9V-SKI	SIN	20 Mar 20	29
9V-SKJ	SIN	20 Mar 20	29
9V-SKK	SIN	21 Mar 20	28
9V-SKL	SIN	27 Mar 20	22
9V-SKM	SIN	21 Mar 20	28
9V-SKN	SIN	15 Oct 19	186
9V-SKP	SIN	24 Mar 20	25
9V-SKQ	SIN	26 Mar 20	23
9V-SKR	SIN	19 Mar 20	30
9V-SKS	SIN	12 Mar 20	37
9V-SKT	SIN	18 Mar 20	31
9V-SKU	SIN	25 Mar 20	24
9V-SKV	SIN	28 Mar 20	21
9V-SKW	SIN	26 Mar 20	23
9V-SKY	SIN	27 Mar 20	22
9V-SKZ	SIN	30 Mar 20	19

9V-SKN remains in maintenance and probable (almost certain) cabin refit in the hangar; it has now not flown for over 6 months.

Note: Original schedules in GDS at 2nd April showed the three times weekly SQ638/637 Tokyo service using the A380v3 from 15th April 2020, however this flight has since been reallocated to the 787-10 all month.

Boeing 777-200

The single Boeing 777-200 available to SIA, 9V-SQN, is stored at Changi having not flown since mid-March.

Aircraft	Location	Last flew	Days ago
9V-SQN	SIN	20 Mar 20	29

Boeing 777-200ER

3 of the airline’s Boeing 777-200ERs are stored in Alice Springs, likely to be a long-term arrangement, while its sole remaining aircraft (9V-SVM) is still in Changi and last flew in February. It’s likely for disposal.

Aircraft	Location	Last flew	Days ago
9V-SVB	ASP	17 Mar 20	32
9V-SVC	ASP	19 Mar 20	30
9V-SVE	ASP	21 Mar 20	28
9V-SVM	SIN	29 Feb 20	49

Boeing 777-300

1 of the airline’s Boeing 777-300s is stored at Changi (9V-SYI), while the other four are in active storage flying a mixture of passenger flights like Ho Chi Minh and cargo-only services like Sydney.

Aircraft	Location	Last flew	Days ago
9V-SYF	SIN	10 Apr 20	8
9V-SYH	SIN	16 Apr 20	2
9V-SYI	SIN	22 Mar 20	27
9V-SYJ	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SYL	SIN	17 Apr 20	1

Boeing 777-300ER

9 of the airline’s Boeing 777-300ERs are stored at Changi, having not flown for at least two weeks (close to a month in some cases), while the remaining 18 are in active storage.

Again these are flying a mixture of the skeleton passenger service, plus cargo-only flights.

Aircraft	Location	Last flew	Days ago
9V-SWA	SIN	29 Mar 20	20
9V-SWB	SIN	24 Mar 20	25
9V-SWD	SIN	19 Mar 20	30
9V-SWE	SIN	13 Apr 20	5
9V-SWF	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SWG	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SWH	SIN	11 Apr 20	7
9V-SWI	SIN	16 Apr 20	2
9V-SWJ	SIN	16 Apr 20	2
9V-SWK	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SWL	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SWM	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SWN	SIN	10 Apr 20	8
9V-SWO	SIN	2 Apr 20	16
9V-SWP	SIN	29 Mar 20	20
9V-SWQ	SIN	16 Apr 20	2
9V-SWR	SIN	11 Apr 20	7
9V-SWS	SIN	4 Apr 20	14
9V-SWT	SIN	23 Mar 20	26
9V-SWU	SIN	8 Apr 20	10
9V-SWV	SIN	14 Apr 20	4
9V-SWW	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SWY	SIN	14 Apr 20	4
9V-SWZ	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SNA	SIN	20 Mar 20	29
9V-SNB	SIN	16 Mar 20	33
9V-SNC	SIN	16 Apr 20	2

Interestingly this month Boeing 777-300ERs flying to Zurich and Frankfurt are staying overnight on arrival at these European ports rather than the usual sequence of turning around and returning to Singapore the same day.

This allows the same crew to operate the outbound and inbound service, with minimal time overseas.

Boeing 787-10

All 15 of the airline’s Boeing 787-10s are still flying in active storage mode. They have all operated services in the last week.

Aircraft	Location	Last flew	Days ago
9V-SCA	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SCB	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SCC	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SCD	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SCE	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SCF	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SCG	SIN	15 Apr 20	3
9V-SCH	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SCI	SIN	18 Apr 20	0
9V-SCJ	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SCK	SIN	17 Apr 20	1
9V-SCL	SIN	15 Apr 20	3
9V-SCM	SIN	12 Apr 20	6
9V-SCN	SIN	16 Apr 20	2
9V-SCO	SIN	18 Apr 20	0

This is by far the busiest fleet in the airline at the moment, with each aircraft flying about three return flights per week on average, close to a third of the type’s usual programme.

It’s largely due to services like Melbourne and Perth still supporting regular flights but only with belly hold cargo. Additional flights to Tokyo, Hong Kong and Guangzhou are also using the 787-10 for cargo-only.

Cargo is king

With cargo suddenly becoming SIA’s largest revenue stream given the almost total collapse of passenger demand this month, it’s capacity beneath the cabin floor which is now forefront in the airline’s mind when choosing which aircraft to allocate, particularly on flights where it is not flying any passengers at all like Melbourne, Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

* Except A350-900 ULR

As you can see Singapore Airlines is focusing its continued operations on aircraft types with the three largest underfloor cargo capacities, highlighted in green. That’s the ‘bigger Boeings’ and the A350-900.

Note that while the A380 has marginally more cargo hold space than the A350-900, the superjumbo burns around 11 tonnes of fuel per hour compared with 5.5 tonnes of fuel per hour for an A350, making it completely unsuited to efficient cargo-only operations in the current climate.

As Will Horton of Forbes said in his excellent analysis on this very topic:

“Guiding Singapore Airlines’ fleet decision appears to be not passengers but cargo: its Boeing aircraft have higher cargo capacity than its Airbus models.” Will Horton, Senior Contributor Aerospace & Defense, Forbes

Other changes since our last update

Since March 2020 (and since the CAAS database at 29th February 2020) the following more mundane changes have been recorded:

Airbus A330-300

• 9V-SSA, which stopped flying on 2nd November 2019, has been de-registered. The aircraft joined Air Canada as C-GOFW on 4th April 2020, but has yet to depart Changi.

Boeing 777-200

• 9V-SQL, which stopped flying on 18th October 2019, has been de-registered.
• 9V-SQN stopped flying on 20th Mar 2020 after a flight from Surabaya. It may not return to service.

Boeing 777-200ER

• 9V-SVB was relocated to long-term storage in Alice Springs on 5th April 2020.
• 9V-SVC was relocated to long-term storage in Alice Springs on 5th April 2020.
• 9V-SVE was relocated to long-term storage in Alice Springs on 5th April 2020.

Upcoming fleet changes

Next month Singapore Airlines will release its half-year analyst briefing, including its fleet development plan for the financial year 2020/21 (April 2020 – March 2021).

It will be very interesting to see what they state here, given the significant financial and cashflow situation regarding the COVID-19 crisis, which has no clear end date nor accurate prediction on how demand will recover when it finally does end.

In next month’s fleet update we should be able to outline the group’s guidance on this, however we expect the retirement of older aircraft may be accelerated and the delivery pace of new jets is likely to be throttled.

A couple of things are almost certain:

• The Airbus A330s will all be returned to lessors by late 2020 / early 2021 as their leases end. There is likely no scope to accelerate this due to financial penalties for breaking the leases early.
• The Boeing 777-200s / -200ERs won’t fly for SIA again.

The Boeing 777-300s (non-ERs) might also be leaving sooner than planned. We heard 2021/22 was the aim for these aircraft departing, but it now seems like they won’t be needed long before that.

One good bit of news for most of our readers if that all transpires is that we’ll finally wave farewell to the angle-flat 2009 Regional Business Class seats.

Future aircraft deliveries

Singapore Airlines has the following aircraft on order, with approximate delivery dates provided where known.

Delivery dates are estimated and therefore approximate.

As you can see there are 12 Airbus A350s due for delivery in the 2020/21 financial year, with potential for a 13th in March 2021 depending on unannounced delivery slots.

The first three of these arriving in June and July 2020 will be the Regional variant, confirmed by assigned registrations in the -SH series.

After that the variant selection has not yet been confirmed, with some aircraft likely to be in the 3-class long-haul layout (-SJ series).

We’ll update the table in future monthly fleet updates once the variants are known, plus as potential delivery dates shift.

Delivery dates are estimated and therefore approximate.

The 1,000th Boeing 787-10 built (9V-SCP) is the next aircraft delivery for Singapore Airlines, due later this month or in early May 2020.

The aircraft wears “1000th 787 Dreamliner” titles near the nose (as we predicted it would, given the same treatment was given to the 1,000th 747). It’s hard to believe there are now 1,000 Boeing 787s in the world, especially in the current climate.

Fun fact: Only 570 Boeing 777-200 and -200ERs were ever built!

Gary Eaton put some shots of the new bird on Instagram, which you can click through below.

View this post on Instagram

Maiden flight of the 1000th production Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The Singapore Airlines 787-10, 78x performed a three hour test flight over the Northern Atlantic Ocean and featured one go around. Notice the 1000th Dreamliner decal underneath the cockpit. Call sign BOE016, registration # 9V-SCP. April 3, 2020 at Charleston International Airport. #Boeing #boeingsouthcarolina #boeingcharleston #boeing78xdreamliner #boeing78x #b78x #b78xdreamliner #1000dreamliner #1000boeingdreamliner #singaporeairlines #singapore #singaporeairlines1000 #b787_fanpage #planespottergary #canon90d #sigma150600mmf563isdg

A post shared by Gary Eaton (@planespottergary) on Apr 3, 2020 at 3:04pm PDT

Given the fantastic cargo capacity of this aircraft (almost matching the Boeing 777-300) and its superior fuel burn, we’d like to think its delivery will not be delayed and it will still join the fleet as planned in the coming weeks.

By next month’s update it should be clear whether SIA has sought a postponement.

We don’t have visibility of the Boeing 787 delivery schedule beyond October 2020 at this stage, so there are potentially a few more slated to arrive in the 2020/21 financial year (our guess would be at least another three between November 2020 and March 2021).

Again this may now vary significantly depending on the COVID-19 situation, so do treat the dates as provisional.

Full details

As always you can see full details of each aircraft type in the Singapore Airlines fleet at the following links, including aircraft registrations specific to each configuration.

• Airbus A330
• Airbus A350 (3 versions)
• Airbus A380 (3 versions)
• Boeing 777-200 (2 versions)
• Boeing 777-200ER
• Boeing 777-300
• Boeing 777-300ER
• Boeing 787-10

If the seat types and routes interest you more – see our Seats Guide.

Stay tuned for the next fleet (and aircraft storage) update in May 2020.

As always, thanks to AIB Family Flights and 787 Blogger for their tireless work, which greatly assists our monthly updates.

(Cover Photo: Singapore Airlines)