Singapore Airlines Fleet: December 2021

Singapore Airlines had a bumper end to 2021 with an expansion of the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) programme to a total of 24 countries, 21 of which the carrier is now serving with regular passenger flights, allowing an expansion of the operating passenger fleet to over 100 aircraft for the first time since the pandemic hit.

36 aircraft are still in storage, either at Changi or in Alice Springs, though only 15 of these are due to return to service, with the others for sale or disposal.

Highlights for the end of the year were undoubtedly the re-entry into service for the new and refitted Airbus A380s, plus the debut of the Boeing 737-8 MAX with new cabin products.

To round off the year, the airline will take delivery of its 57th Airbus A350 on 29th December 2021.

Fleet totals

Here are the Singapore Airlines passenger fleet totals at 29th December 2021.

	CAAS Database:	144
	Recently delivered: For disposal:	+2 -21
	In Service:	125
	In maintenance / stored:	-15
	Active:	110

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 125 planes at 29th December 2021, 110 of which were recently active.

  Click here to see the official CAAS list of registered aircraft in Singapore at 2nd December 2021.

SIA Passenger Fleet at 29th December 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
A350-900	27	27	27
A350-900 Regional	22	22	22
A350-900 ULR	7	7	7
A380-800 v1	4	0	0
A380-800 v2	3	2	0
A380-800 v3	10	10	7
737-800	13	9	8
737-8 MAX	10	10	6
777-200	6	0	0
777-200ER	1	0	0
777-300	2	0	0
777-300ER	26	23	18
787-10	15	15	15
Total	146	125	110

All the airline’s remaining registered Boeing 777-200s, Boeing 777-200ERs and Boeing 777-300s will not be returning to the fleet, in addition to five older Airbus A380s, three Boeing 777-300ERs and four Boeing 737-800s.

These are therefore excluded from the ‘In Service’ column.

This reflects a future fleet of 125 aircraft, plus future near-term deliveries of Airbus A350s, Boeing 737-8 MAXs and Boeing 787-10s.

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

Farewell Airbus A330s

The final Airbus A330 to leave the Singapore Airlines fleet and return to its lessor was 9V-SSI, which was flown to storage in Spain on 16th October 2021.

Singapore Airlines flew a total of 34 Airbus A330s between February 2009 and April 2020, with a peak fleet of 29 of the aircraft active during 2015.

These aircraft were only leased on five-year terms, initially as a stop-gap due to production delays for SIA’s Boeing 787s and Airbus A350s, though additional leases were later signed for the A330s, while some lease terms were extended.

Those still in service around the world after being returned by SIA include aircraft now flown by Brussels Airlines, Air Canada, Oman Air and TAP Air Portugal.

You can see a full list of ex-SIA Airbus A330s now with new operators here, and a list of those in storage here.

Welcome back A380s

The introduction of more VTLs has given Singapore Airlines the confidence to start reintroducing some of its Airbus A380s to passenger service, for the first time since March 2020.

A series of round-trips to and from Kuala Lumpur came first in early November, followed by regular daily service to London, then Sydney.

Further expansion for the A380s in 2022 includes:

• Mumbai from 10th January 2022
• Delhi from 14th February 2022
• Frankfurt from 27th March 2022
• New York from 27th March 2022

Meanwhile two older A380s, 9V-SKG and 9V-SKH, have been scrapped at Changi for spare parts.

That leaves 17 Airbus A380s in the registered SIA fleet, five of which have been retired and will not re-enter service, as shown in the following table.

Singapore Airlines A380 Fleet
(27th December 2021)

Aircraft	Current Location	Version	Fate / Status
9V-SKF	SIN	V1	Retired
9V-SKI	SIN	V1	Retired
9V-SKJ	SIN	V1	Retired
9V-SKK	ASP	V1	Retired
9V-SKL	ASP	V2	Future Refit & Re-entry
9V-SKM	SIN	V3	In Service
9V-SKN	SIN	V3	In Service
9V-SKP	ASP	V2	Retired
9V-SKQ	SIN	V2 (V3 pending)	Refit & Re-entry
9V-SKR	SIN	V3	Stored
9V-SKS	SIN	V3	Stored
9V-SKT	SIN	V3	In Service
9V-SKU	SIN	V3	In Service
9V-SKV	SIN	V3	In Service
9V-SKW	SIN	V3	Stored
9V-SKY	SIN	V3	In Service
9V-SKZ	ASP	V3	Stored

We understand all six Version 1 aircraft (9V-SKF to -SKK) and one Version 2 aircraft (9V-SKP) will be leaving the fleet (-SKG and -SKH having already being dismantled).

Ten A380s now have the new 2017 cabin products installed, five from new and another five completed refits.

9V-SKQ’s refit should be finished next, leaving only 9V-SKL to be done. 9V-SKZ also needs to be flown back from Alice Springs, but does not require any cabin modifications.

The first Boeing 777-300ER is retired

Back in May 2021 Singapore Airlines confirmed that four of its Boeing 777-300ERs would be retired from the fleet following a write-down process, with the carrier confirming to Mainly Miles that 9V-SWA, 9V-SWD, 9V-SWE and 9V-SWF are the affected aircraft.

The first of those, and oldest in the fleet, has now departed for its new life in the USA.

Here’s 9V-SWA on a test flight in late September 2021, devoid of its Singapore Airlines titles.