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.
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