Singapore Airlines Fleet & Storage Report: February 2021

Singapore Airlines has scaled back its active passenger aircraft total slightly to 72 in recent weeks, from 74 in January 2021, as the carrier prepares to introduce Boeing 737-800s into its fleet from March 2021. Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s continue to cover the bulk of the operating network.

Meanwhile another Airbus A330 has departed Singapore back to its lessor, dwindling the total in this (stored) fleet to just four aircraft, and there’s been an Airbus A380 ‘shuffle’ in anticipation of the next cabin refit at Changi.

Fleet totals

Here are the Singapore Airlines passenger fleet totals at 27th February 2021.

	CAAS Database:	132
	For disposal:	-26
	In Service:	106
	In maintenance / stored:	-34
	Active:	72

The official registered aircraft data in combination with recent retirement announcements and analysis of actual flight movements over the last few weeks allows us to determine the actual ‘in service’ fleet (available to the airline) of 106 planes at 27th February 2021, 72 of which are recently active.

  Click here to see the official CAAS list of registered aircraft in Singapore at 31st January 2021.

SIA Passenger Fleet at 27th February 2021

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)	4	0	0
A350-900 (full details)	26	26	25
A350-900 Regional (full details)	19	19	17
A350-900 ULR (full details)	7	7	6
A380-800 v1 (full details)	6	0	0
A380-800 v2 (full details)	4	3	0
A380-800 v3 (full details)	9	9	0
777-200 (full details)	8	0	0
777-200ER (full details)	3	0	0
777-300 (full details)	4	0	0
777-300ER (full details)	27	27	9
787-10 (full details)	15	15	15
Total	132	106	72

Following confirmation that all the airline’s remaining Airbus A330s, Boeing 777-200s, Boeing 777-200ERs and Boeing 777-300s will not be returning to the fleet after COVID-19, in addition to seven older Airbus A380s, we have removed these from the ‘In Service’ column.

This reflects a future fleet of 106 aircraft, plus future near-term deliveries of Airbus A350s and Boeing 787-10s.

There will also a nine Boeing 737-800s and an unknown number of Boeing 737 MAX 8s joining the fleet in 2021, as the SilkAir merger enters its final stage.

Fleet activity

Only four aircraft types are currently in service with the airline, as shown in the table below outlining the number in use at each of our monthly fleet update ‘snapshots’.

An aircraft is considered ‘active’ if it has flown at least one passenger or cargo-only flight in the last 14 days.

SIA fleet activity timeline (2020)
	A350			B773	B77W	B787	Total
	LH	R	ULR
Apr	16	10	—	4	18	15	63
May	14	9	—	3	18	15	59
Jun	21	12	—	2	11	15	61
Aug	23	14	—	1	4	14	56
Sep	24	13	—	1	7	12	57
Oct	24	13	—	1	4	12	54
Nov	25	17	—	—	10	14	66
Dec	26	18	3	—	9	14	70
Jan 2021	26	18	6	—	9	15	74
Feb 2021	25	17	6	—	9	15	72

Almost all Airbus A350s and Boeing 787-10s remain in consistent use, while the deployment of Boeing 777-300ERs is still at around a third of that fleet, with the airline actively using a total of 72 aircraft in February 2021.

Here’s a graphical look at the active vs. stored fleet, including the average daily utilisation per active aircraft based on the seven-day period between 15th February and 21st February 2021.

Boeing 777-300ER activity was low at just 2 hours per active aircraft per day. These aircraft continue to mostly be deployed on cargo-only services, with some shorter passenger flights in the mix including to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh, where the First Class cabin is not sold.

Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s on the other hand are far busier, with the active aircraft in those fleets clocking up seven to 13 hours per day on average.

Other aircraft types in the Singapore Airlines fleet remain in storage this month and are not currently being flown at all, which has mostly been the case since early April 2020:

• Airbus A330
• Airbus A380
• Boeing 777-200
• Boeing 777-200ER
• Boeing 777-300

Another Airbus A330 has departed

Following the de-registration of 9V-STC in November last year and 9V-SSD the following month, another Airbus A330 (9V-SSE) was deregistered in January 2021.

The aircraft is now back with its lessor on the Austrian register as OE-IEK. It was ferried from Singapore to Pinal Airpark (MZJ) in Arizona for storage in mid-February.

It’s fair to say -SSE wasn’t the luckiest A330 in the Singapore Airlines fleet over its five-year service life. It suffered an engine failure on departure out of Dhaka in February 2018, when a fan blade separated from the engine, causing it to divert to Mandalay.

In January 2020, it was struck by a catering truck, causing damage to its cargo door, requiring its complete removal and replacement.

9V-SSF will presumably be the next A330 to depart for return from lease.

The work of the A330 fleet has now been taken up by Airbus A350 Regional and Boeing 787-10 aircraft in the SIA fleet, though there are still four registered A330s in storage at Changi.

These are due for return to lessors between now and September 2021.

Airbus A380s shuffle for a refit

Earlier this week one of SIA’s Airbus A380s (9V-SKL) was flown to storage in Alice Springs, but this wasn’t a net addition to the seven superjumbos already parked there.

Shortly after it arrived, a previously stored A380 (9V-SKQ) was flown from Alice Springs to Sydney, for a short maintenance visit.

SKQ has since been flown back to Singapore, where it will be the fifth older A380 to be refitted with the airline’s latest cabin products, SIA confirmed to Mainly Miles.

9V-SKL had been stored at Changi since its last passenger service on 27th March 2020, while 9V-SKQ had been in desert storage for a total of almost eight months, having been relocated to the Alice Springs facility on 27th June 2020.

We understand the cabin refit programme for the three remaining aircraft, including 9V-SKQ, will be completed by the end of this year, bringing the fleet of A380s with the latest products to 12 – it’s future total.

Boeing 737-800s are coming

The merger of SilkAir into Singapore Airlines is set to enter its final stage next month, with nine Boeing 737-800s progressively moving across to the SIA mainline fleet, and the first three of eight confirmed routes picking up narrow-body SQ service.

These aircraft had not been formally transferred to the Singapore Airlines Air Operator Certificate at the last CAAS registry update on 31st January 2021, however we expect them to start moving across this month.

Here are details of the nine aircraft, including the date of their final passenger flight with SilkAir.

Aircraft	Location	Last flew	Days ago
9V-MGA	SIN	20 Mar 20	343
9V-MGB	SIN	23 Mar 20	340
9V-MGC	SIN	9 Feb 21	17
9V-MGD	SIN	3 Jan 21	54
9V-MGE	SIN	24 Jan 21	33
9V-MGK	SIN	18 Mar 20	345
9V-MGL	SIN	15 Dec 20	73
9V-MGM	SIN	19 Mar 20	344
9V-MGN	SIN	20 Mar 20	343

We understand all nine aircraft have now been repainted in SIA colours.

Don’t miss our full rundown of what to expect on board these narrow-body aircraft, from food and drink to windowless seats, entertainment options and cabin crew uniforms, as they start to enter service with SIA.