Coronavirus: SIA flies four of its newest A380s into long-term storage

In a slight surprise, Singapore Airlines has prioritised sending its newest Airbus A380 aircraft into long-term storage in Australia this weekend, bidding farewell to over half its ‘Version 3’ superjumbo sub-fleet for at least the next few months, including a refitted aircraft that had only been back flying for 10 weeks with the latest cabin products.

This was after confirmation on Friday this week that four of the Airbus A380s would be making the journey to Alice Springs, joining three of the airline’s Boeing 777-200ERs that flew there three weeks ago.

Details

The aircraft departed at approximate 1-hour intervals this morning, as follows:

• SQ8865 (Dep 01:43 / Arr 08:20)
• SQ8866 (Dep 03:03 / Arr 09:39)
• SQ8867 (Dep 03:59 / Arr 10:34)
• SQ8868 (Dep 05:08 / Arr 11:41)

This is an expensive exercise, likely costing upwards of S$100,000 per A380 for the operating cost of the 5-hour flight alone (around half of that is fuel), plus the same cost to bear again when the aircraft are then returned to Singapore in future.

That means it’s not done lightly or just for a few weeks – it’s a long-term plan for at least a few months.

Here are the four A380 aircraft which flew to Alice Springs last night, including details of their most recent passenger flight.

Registration		Delivered	Last flew
	9V-SKT	6 Sep 2012 (age 8.2 yrs)	18 Mar 2020 SQ232 SYD-SIN
Note: SKT received 2017 cabin products and re-entered service on 5 Jan 2020 with the latest seats.
	9V-SKW	12 Apr 2018 (age 2.6 yrs)	26 Mar 2020 SQ317 LHR-SIN
	9V-SKY	15 Jun 2018 (age 2.3 yrs)	27 Mar 2020 SQ317 LHR-SIN
	9V-SKZ	27 Jul 2018 (age 2.2 yrs)	30 Mar 2020 SQ317 LHR-SIN

Note that aircraft age is based on first pre-delivery test flight date.

9V-SKT only flew with the new 2017 cabin products for around 10 weeks, so its internal fittings should be in mint condition.

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Review: Singapore Airlines New A380 Suites READ OUR REVIEW

Two Scoot A320s also flew down to Alice Springs last night, joining a pair that made the same trip three weeks ago.

Registration		Delivered	Last flew
	9V-TAN	20 Feb 2010 (age 10.2 yrs)	19 Mar 2020 TR631 HDY-SIN
	9V-TAQ	10 Nov 2010 (age 9.5 yrs)	15 Mar 2020 TR541 CJB-SIN

Note that aircraft age is based on first pre-delivery test flight date.

These aircraft had not flown for around five weeks and were being temporarily stored at Changi.

SQ212 is picking up the crew

As with last time a batch of SIA aircraft was relocated to Alice Springs, Singapore Airlines is diverting today’s Sydney – Singapore SQ212 flight (a cargo-only service) via the airport, presumably to collect the 12 pilots and deliver them back home this evening.

At the time of writing the aircraft, Boeing 777-300ER 9V-SWM, was just leaving the Australian coastline en-route from Alice Springs to Singapore, and is due to land just after 5pm local time.

SIA’s long-term stored aircraft

Here’s a summary of the 17 Singapore Airlines Group aircraft in long-term storage at Alice Springs as of 26th April 2020.

	Singapore Airlines
Airbus A380
9V-SKT	9V-SKW	9V-SKY	9V-SKZ
Boeing 777-200ER
9V-SVB	9V-SVC	9V-SVE
Total: 7
	SilkAir
Boeing 737 MAX 8
9V-MBA	9V-MBB	9V-MBC	9V-MBD
9V-MBE	9V-MBF
Total: 6
	Scoot
Airbus A320
9V-TAN	9V-TAQ	9V-TAU	9V-TAV
Total: 4

These aircraft are now under the care of Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage, and will benefit from the dry desert climate, essential for preserving aircraft in long-term storage.

We have a full list of which other Singapore Airlines aircraft remain active or in short-term storage at Changi Airport as of 18th April 2020 in our regular monthly fleet update here, which showed that 61 aircraft are effectively in temporary storage mode.

More could follow

Singapore Airlines clearly sees a long-term future for its Airbus A380 Version 3 aircraft, especially after the expense they have gone to installing the latest Suites and Business Class seats.

9V-SKN should emerge from its refit with these cabin products soon (it was originally required to support daily flights to Paris with the 2017 seats from 1st July 2020), which will increase the A380 Version 3 sub-fleet to eight aircraft in total.

One downside of these aircraft however is their capacity – at 471 seats they are the largest in the fleet and so probably the last aircraft the airline wants to deploy for the remainder of 2020, with travel demand likely taking a prolonged downturn.

SIA will therefore be concerned about the long-term condition of the remaining four Version 3 aircraft – SKS, SKU, SKV and soon SKN, assuming they don’t start reusing them soon.

That potentially paves the way for those four to eventually join the current batch in Alice Springs, or at an alternative facility.

Summary

Singapore Airlines seems to have two different strategies for using the Alice Springs storage facility.

Storing three 15-year-old Boeing 777-200ERs there, aircraft never likely to be used again by the airline, seems more like a retirement plan for those assets.

On the other hand storing nearly new (or freshly refitted) Airbus A380s and brand new Boeing 737 MAX aircraft there seems more like a ‘best preservation’ solution, so that these aircraft remain in good condition and can return to the fleet with minimal maintenance work.

It’s bad news of course for fans of the latest 2017 Suites and Business Class seats, which will now at best become a rarity for at least six months or so. At worst if other Version 3 aircraft follow these four into storage, we may have waved goodbye to the newest cabin products last month for quite some time, without knowing it.

On the positive side, efforts to preserve these new and refitted aircraft mean they should be back in the fleet at some point in the future.

What it means for the airline’s older A380s still at Changi, including four leased aircraft, remains to be seen.

(Cover Photo: Agent Wolf / Shutterstock)