It’s been over a year since Singapore Airlines first introduced its Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft to passenger service, back in late November 2021 between Changi Airport and the Thai holiday resort island of Phuket, including the latest flat-bed Regional Business Class and Economy Class seats for the narrow-body fleet.

While Phuket no longer features on the aircraft’s roster, more MAXs and more routes have been progressively added since then, with 15 of the jets now in the regular operating fleet and a further 22 set to join in the years ahead.

It’s therefore a good time to revisit where the MAXs are flying on the network, whether you’re trying to snag an experience with the new cabin products, or simply avoiding the type altogether!

The MAX already represents the majority of the SIA narrow-body fleet, with recent confirmation that the older Boeing 737-800s (NGs) with recliner seats in Business Class now number only seven aircraft (down from nine), all of which will eventually leave the airline by late 2025.

In total, nearly one in five SIA flights (18%) will be operated by a Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft during the upcoming summer timetable season.

More routes

The 737 MAX network has expanded considerably since inaugural routes to Phuket, Phnom Penh, Kuala Lumpur, Siem Reap and Brunei started in late 2021.

The fleet now flies to 18 destinations, including Cairns in Australia which clocks in at 6 hours 45 minutes of flight time.

That list will expand this coming summer season with the addition of five cities, including a reinstatement of 6-hour non-stop Busan flights (previously flown using the A330), though the shortest route – Kuala Lumpur – will no longer receive the MAX, for a new total of 22 destinations.

Here’s how SIA’s Boeing 737-8 MAX route network looks.

Since our last update the Singapore Airlines MAX has started flying on selected services to and from Bengaluru, Da Nang and Hanoi, and as you can see from the map, the carrier is introducing more routes for the type this summer, with the aircraft also being deployed on the following regular services:

• Bali – Daily from 26th March 2023
• Busan – 4 x weekly from 28th August 2023
• Medan – Daily from 26th March 2023
• Surabaya – Daily from 26th March 2023
• Yangon – Daily from 26th March 2023

The MAX is mostly replacing the airline’s older Boeing 737-800s on these flights, which retained the former SilkAir recliner seats in Business Class.

Operation of the MAX vs. the 737-800s is now shifting firmly to the strategy outlined by SIA’s EVP commercial Lee Lik Hsin at the new product launch in November 2021, where he was stated that the -800s would be put on shorter routes where the newer cabin products were less important.

The airline recently announced that two of its nine Boeing 737-800s were surplus to requirements and have been removed from the fleet, leaving only seven aircraft operating to and from Phuket, Penang and Kuala Lumpur this summer.

Schedules

You can expand the schedule boxes below for each of SIA’s confirmed 737-8 MAX destinations, to see which flights the new aircraft is operating on, including timings and days of operation through to the end of the northern summer schedule on 28th October 2023.

We have also noted whether there is an alternative to the MAX on these routes, for those wishing to avoid the type.

By September 2023, SIA will have 176 weekly departures from Changi using the Boeing 737 MAX, out of a total of 956 weekly departures across all fleets, meaning over 18% of the airline’s flights (nearly one in five) will be flown by the type.

Fun fact: The Boeing 737-8 MAX will be used on 30% of all Singapore Airlines flights under 5 hours duration this summer.

Additionally 63 weekly departures (7%) are operated by the Boeing 737-800, meaning a total of 25% (1 in 4) of the airline’s flights will be flown by a narrow-body aircraft during the April to October period.

How to tell if your flight is on the MAX

Aside from the schedule tables above, Singapore Airlines identifies the Boeing 737-8 MAX in its booking engine when you search for a flight or award redemption, either through the website or mobile app.

Simply click ‘More details’ for the flight(s) displayed in the search results to reveal the aircraft type.

Note that a different identification is given for the older Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which are labelled “Boeing 737-800 NG” by SIA.

If you’re using a search tool like ExpertFlyer, you can identify the Boeing 737-8 MAX in the search results by its IATA aircraft type designator “7M8”.

If you’re checking for the Boeing 737-8 MAX on a flight tracking site like FlightRadar24, you may see it referred to by its ICAO aircraft type designator “B38M”.

Most third-party booking sites like Kayak will also clearly show if your flight is operated by the MAX.

The current SIA MAX fleet

The current Singapore Airlines fleet of 16 Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft is as shown in the table below.

Singapore Airlines Boeing 737 MAX Fleet
Registration	Age (Feb 2023)	SIA First Pax Service
9V-MBA	5.4 yrs	28 Nov 2021 (SIN-HKT)
9V-MBB	5.3 yrs	6 Dec 2021 (SIN-PNH)
9V-MBC	5.2 yrs	23 Nov 2021 (SIN-HKT)
9V-MBD	4.9 yrs	17 Dec 2021 (SIN-KUL)
9V-MBE	4.8 yrs	4 Dec 2021 (SIN-HKT)
9V-MBF	4.0 yrs	24 Nov 2021 (SIN-HKT)
9V-MBG	3.9 yrs	1 Feb 2022 (SIN-KUL)
9V-MBH	3.8 yrs	22 Mar 2022 (SIN-KUL)
9V-MBI	3.6 yrs	10 Apr 2022 (SIN-KUL)
9V-MBJ	3.6 yrs	30 Apr 2022 (SIN-KUL)
9V-MBK	3.5 yrs	2 Jun 2022 (SIN-HKT)
9V-MBL	3.4 yrs	Stored in SIN (never entered service)
9V-MBM	3.2 yrs	20 Nov 2022 (SIN-KUL)
9V-MBN	3.2 yrs	7 Jul 2022 (SIN-KUL)
9V-MBO	0.6 yrs	15 Sep 2022 (SIN-KUL)
9V-MBP	0.3 yrs	22 Dec 2022 (SIN-PNH)

9V-MBL is now the only MAX in the fleet not in service, stored at Changi since delivery in February 2022. The aircraft was repainted from SilkAir colours into the Star Alliance colour scheme (photo here) in April 2022, but for some reason has been ‘skipped’ in the service activation order.

It’s an expensive asset to have sitting around doing nothing for close to a year now – so this is a peculiar one.

9V-MBL is the first SIA narrow-body aircraft to receive the Star Alliance colours.

New cabin products

This big advantage when you fly on SIA’s 737 MAX rather than the 737-800 is the latest cabin products, including a flat-bed seat in Business Class, two “throne” seat options, and an upgraded experience in Economy Class including seat-back in-flight entertainment.

Wi-Fi is also available in both cabins (and remember, it’s now an ‘all-you-can-eat’ allowance in Business Class).

Here’s a to-scale representation of the cabin layout from the excellent aeroLOPA site, clearly showing the extended consoles at the two “throne” seats.

Here are our dedicated articles covering the new cabins, to help you know what to expect on board.

Do bear in mind that on routes with both MAXs and wide-body aircraft operating, like the Boeing 787-10s on Bali and Chennai, you’ll get a better experience in both cabins on the larger aircraft compared to the 737 MAX.

The differences here include direct aisle access regardless of your seat allocation in Business Class, plus a wider seat, while in Economy Class there’s more legroom and recline, plus AC charging sockets, on the wide-body jets.

This may not make a huge difference on shorter routes, but as the MAXs will no doubt stretch their legs to even more distant cities in the coming years, the differences will certainly be worth noting where you have a choice on your route.

Don’t confuse the 737 MAX with the 737-800

Singapore Airlines has decided against any further cabin upgrades on its fleet of nine (now seven) Boeing 737-800s inherited from SilkAir, which will remain in the fleet until leases on those aircraft expire in 2024/25.

Where you have a choice between the MAX and the -800 on a route, it will therefore be preferable to go for the MAX where possible, especially on longer flights.

That’s because the 737-800s retain 12 recliner seats in Business Class, with little privacy between them, and a more basic Economy Class cabin with no built-in IFE system or Wi-Fi.

Passengers can stream entertainment content onto their personal device from an onboard server (when it works!), but it’s no match for the full KrisWorld system on the MAXs.

More MAXs are coming

A total of 21 more Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are still yet to be delivered to Singapore Airlines, for a total future fleet of 37.

That will make it the second largest fleet in the airline, after the Airbus A350.

Due to the predominantly short-haul and regional nature of the 737’s operation, two-thirds of all SIA flights are likely to be operated by the 737-8 MAX once the fleet is fully delivered and in service.

Singapore Airlines will certainly be playing to the versatility of the 737-8 MAX, with its 6,500km range allowing it to comfortably serve thinner routes of up to 7 hours, or be deployed seasonally on less busy city pairs in place of wide-body aircraft.

Batik Air Malaysia has recently been operating its Boeing 737-8 MAX between Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne – a non-stop flight of 6,300km, which is around 700km further than Singapore – Mauritius or Singapore – Muscat, so the capability is clearly there.

We wouldn’t be surprised to see cities as far afield as Adelaide and Fukuoka join the roster for the 737-8 MAX as the fleet continues to grow, so watch this space for future route announcements.

Singapore Airlines is steadily rolling out its Boeing 737-8 MAX narrow-body jets across the network, with the fleet set to operate one in five of the carrier’s departures out of Changi each week this summer season.

The network will span 22 cities by then, with further destinations undoubtedly on the way in the years ahead as 21 more aircraft join the fleet.

As the MAX fleet expands within Singapore Airlines, it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the type (if that’s your strategy), with 13 routes seeing exclusively 737-8 MAX operation this summer, including Cairns, Darwin, Medan and Penang.

Ultimately the final fleet of 37 MAX aircraft could see the airline branching out to even longer routes than Cairns and Busan, potentially including cities that formerly saw only wide-body operation, as far afield as Adelaide, or even former SIA destinations like Mauritius.

(Cover Photo: Plane’s Portrait Aviation Media / Malcolm Lu)