Singapore Airlines Fleet: March 2021

This month saw Singapore Airlines mark the start of a new era as far as its aircraft fleet is concerned, with the introduction of its first narrow-body (single-aisle) passenger aircraft in over 30 years. That came about as the first four of nine ex-SilkAir Boeing 737-800s entered service with the mainline division.

An additional Boeing 737 MAX aircraft also returned to Changi from Alice Springs, meaning half that fleet has now been brought home to undergo the long-awaited cabin refits, including flat-bed seats in Business Class.

Meanwhile the wide-body fleet renewal process continued, with a pair of Boeing 777-300s leaving, another A330 set for departure to pastures new, and a trio of brand new Airbus A350 Regionals looking primed for imminent delivery.

Fleet totals

Here are the Singapore Airlines passenger fleet totals at 28th March 2021.

	CAAS Database:	134
	Recently deregistered: Recently delivered: For disposal:	-1 +1 -24
	In Service:	110
	In maintenance / stored:	-30
	Active:	80

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 110 planes at 28th March 2021, 80 of which were recently active.

  Click here to see the official CAAS list of registered aircraft in Singapore at 28th February 2021.

SIA Passenger Fleet at 28th March 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	4	0	0
A350-900	26	26	26
A350-900 Regional	19	19	17
A350-900 ULR	7	7	7
A380-800 v1	6	0	0
A380-800 v2	4	3	0
A380-800 v3	9	9	0
737-800	4	4	4
777-200	8	0	0
777-200ER	3	0	0
777-300	2	0	0
777-300ER	27	27	11
787-10	15	15	15
Total	134	110	80

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 110 aircraft, plus future near-term deliveries of Airbus A350s and Boeing 787-10s.

There will also be an unknown number of Boeing 737 MAX 8s joining the fleet in 2021, as the SilkAir merger enters its final stage, while five more Boeing 737-800s will be temporarily added.

Fleet activity

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’, from April 2020 to date.

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

SIA fleet activity timeline (2021)
	A350			B738	B77W	B787	Total
	LH	R	ULR
Jan	26	18	6	—	9	15	74
Feb	25	17	6	—	9	15	72
Mar	26	17	7	4	11	15	80

Almost all Airbus A350s and Boeing 787-10s remain in consistent use, alongside the four recent Boeing 737-800 deliveries, while the deployment of Boeing 777-300ERs has risen to around a 40% of that fleet.

Overall the airline was actively using a total of 80 aircraft in March 2021, its highest total since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Here’s a graphical look at the active vs. stored fleet.

Here’s a look at how busy each aircraft fleet has been, based on active aircraft over the seven-day period from 21st March to 27th March 2021.

Type	Total flights per week	Average per active aircraft
		Flights per week	Daily utilisation
A350	191	8	12.1h
A350 R	189	11	9.2h
A350 ULR	191	5	11.4h
737-800	26	7	2.1h