LONDON – Over the next five months, Singapore Airlines is set to receive 22 aircraft across the group.
These delivery changes have come in the wake of air travel demand rising exponentially, with the breakdown of aircraft consisting of 15 for the mainline carrier and seven for its subsidiary Scoot.
The 22 aircraft will also join the first three Airbus A380 aircraft that have been reactivated and are currently operating services to London and Sydney respectively.
We are also expecting a fourth A380 to be reactivated as a standby by early next month.
On the mainline side, the airline will receive two Airbus A350-900 Regional variant aircraft, eight Boeing 737MAX8s, and five 787-10s.
Of the five 787-10s, 9V-SCP will be the 1,000th B787 delivered to customers around the world.
Scott will receive five Airbus A321neos and two Boeing 787-8 aircraft.
This means that by March 31 next year, Singapore Airlines will have 136 aircraft in its fleet, with the Scoot portfolio growing to 57, meaning across the group, there will be close to 200 aircraft.
In the airline’s financial results, it pinned a couple of reasons for such expansion as mentioned below:
“International air travel continued to recover during the first half of FY2021/22, on the back of rising global Covid-19 vaccination rates and as travel corridors – including Singapore’s Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) arrangement – came into effect. “
“The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group’s passenger traffic (measured in revenue passenger-kilometers) grew five-fold year-on-year, with passenger capacity (available
seat-kilometres) also growing five-fold year-on-year to reach 32% of pre-Covid-19 levels as of September 2021.”
“Group revenue rose $1,193 million (+73.0%) year-on-year to $2,827 million, attributable to improvements in both the passenger and cargo segments.”
“Passenger flown revenue grew by $598 million (+385.8%) on the back of the recovery in traffic, partly offset by weaker yields. Cargo flown revenue reached a record high of $1,875 million (+$635 million or +51.2%) with the progressive resumption of passenger flights contributing to the increase in cargo capacity (+49.5%) and loads carried (+61.6%).”
“The strong cargo performance reflects the capacity crunch in both air freight and ocean freight, and ongoing supply chain disruptions driving air freight demand.”
What remains clear is that Singapore Airlines has managed to defer deliveries successfully, and is now going to reap the benefits of this, especially as markets continue to grow and expand post-pandemic.
