It’s been a year since our last Singapore Airlines fleet update, and the carrier has brought more of its passenger aircraft back into service over the last 12 months as travel rebounded following Singapore’s lifting of most border restrictions in April 2022.
Additionally, 11 brand new aircraft were delivered to SIA, 10 of which have been brought into service at the time of writing.
The carrier’s active passenger fleet now stands at over 120 aircraft, practically the same as pre-COVID, though that’s still around 30 aircraft short when you consider that SilkAir has now been fully merged into the mainline carrier.
Fleet totals
Here are the Singapore Airlines passenger fleet totals at 31st December 2022.
| CAAS Database: | 148 | ||
| Recently delivered: For disposal: |
+1 -15 |
||
| In Service: | 134 | ||
| In maintenance / stored: |
-11 |
||
| Active: | 123 |
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 134 planes at 31st December 2022, 123 of which were recently active.
That’s 12% more than this time last year, when 110 passenger aircraft were active in the fleet.
Click here to see the official CAAS list of registered aircraft in Singapore at 1st November 2022.
SIA Passenger Fleet at 31st December 2022
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 LH |
30 | 30 | 29 |
| A350-900 MH |
24 |
24 | 23 |
| A350-900 ULR |
7 | 7 | 7 |
A380-800 |
17 | 12 | 10 |
737-800 |
9 |
7 | 7 |
737-8 MAX |
16 | 16 | 15 |
777-200 |
5 | 0 | 0 |
777-300ER |
26 | 23 | 17 |
787-10 |
15 | 15 | 15 |
| Total | 149 | 134 | 123 |
All the airline’s remaining registered Boeing 777-200s will not be returning to the fleet, in addition to five older Airbus A380s, three Boeing 777-300ERs and two Boeing 737-800s.
These are therefore excluded from the ‘In Service’ column.
This reflects a future fleet of 134 aircraft, plus future deliveries of Airbus A350s, Boeing 737-8 MAXs and Boeing 787-10s still on order.
More Boeing 737-8 MAXs join the fleet
During 2022, Singapore Airlines took delivery of six new Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft, as shown below.
Singapore Airlines Boeing 737 MAX
2022 Deliveries
| Reg. | Delivered | Entered Service |
| 9V-MBK | 15 Feb 2022 |
2 Jun 2022 |
| 9V-MBL | 26 Feb 2022 |
Yet to enter service |
| 9V-MBM | 5 Jun 2022 |
20 Nov 2022 |
| 9V-MBN | 3 Apr 2022 |
7 Jul 2022 |
| 9V-MBO | 18 Jul 2022 |
15 Sep 2022 |
| 9V-MBP | 22 Nov 2022 |
22 Dec 2022 |
Additionally, four MAX aircraft that had been delivered in late 2021 but were undergoing cabin refits and had not entered service with the airline have all now joined the operating fleet, as shown below.
Singapore Airlines Boeing 737 MAX
2021 Deliveries
2022 Service Entry
| Reg. | Delivered | Entered Service |
| 9V-MBG | 25 Nov 2021 |
1 Feb 2022 |
| 9V-MBH | 4 Dec 2021 |
22 Mar 2022 |
| 9V-MBI | 14 Dec 2021 |
10 Apr 2022 |
| 9V-MBJ | 25 Dec 2021 |
30 Apr 2022 |
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.
This is the first SIA narrow-body aircraft to receive the Star Alliance colours.
All Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft entering service with SIA are fitted with the latest cabin products for the narrow-body fleet. Here are our dedicated articles covering the new cabins, to help you know what to expect on board.
Five more Airbus A350s arrived
In 2022, Singapore Airlines took delivery of five brand new Airbus A350 aircraft.
Singapore Airlines Airbus A350
2022 Deliveries
| Reg. | Variant | Delivered | Entered Service |
| 9V-SJE | Long Haul | 30 Dec 2021 |
8 Jan 2022 |
| 9V-SHW | Medium Haul |
7 Jan 2022 |
15 Jan 2022 |
| 9V-SHY | Medium Haul | 8 Apr 2022 |
18 Apr 2022 |
| 9V-SJC | Long Haul |
28 Jun 2022 |
5 Jul 2022 |
| 9V-SJD | Long Haul | 20 Aug 2022 |
26 Aug 2022 |
Four more passenger A350s will be delivered to the airline, all of which will be the Long Haul variant.
Farewell Boeing 777-200ER and 777-300s
At the start of 2022 Singapore Airlines still had one Boeing 777-200ER (9V-SVE) and two Boeing 777-300s (9V-SYF and -SYH) legally registered to the airline, despite both types having been withdrawn from service.
These have now been sold and de-registered, with the following fate:
- 9V-SVE was sold to Eastern Airlines as N830KW, and ferried from Alice Springs to Kansas City via Brisbane and Honolulu on 5th – 7th January 2022. It has yet to be converted into a freighter aircraft and enter service with the carrier. Here’s a photo of it in storage in July 2022.
- 9V-SYH was sold to Eastern Airlines as N834KW, and ferried from Singapore to Kansas City via Seoul on 24th – 26th February 2022. It is also awaiting freighter conversion and entry into service with the carrier.
- 9V-SYF was sold to Eastern Airlines as N833KW, and ferried from Singapore to Kansas City via Seoul on 27th – 28th April 2022. It is also awaiting freighter conversion and entry into service with the carrier.
These aircraft will join the now-defunct NokScoot (but SIA-owned) Boeing 777-200 9V-SRF, which was sold to Eastern Airlines as a freighter in late 2021.
Two more A380s scrapped at Changi
Last year we reported how two of SIA’s older retired older A380s, 9V-SKG and 9V-SKH, were scrapped at Changi for spare parts.
Two more aircraft have since met a similar fate, with 9V-SKJ and 9V-SKI scrapped at Changi in October and November 2022 respectively.
The end result is not a pretty sight for any A380 enthusiast.
Only 9V-SKF remains at Changi among the three A380s not returning to service. It is presently parked near T1.
The fate of the two A380s stored in Alice Springs, 9V-SKK and 9V-SKL, which also won’t rejoin the fleet, is unknown.
The final Airbus A380 is in refit
In brighter news for the airline’s remaining 12 Airbus A380s, October 2022 brought the news that 9V-SKQ’s cabin refit has now been completed, with the aircraft re-entering service on the 16th of that month, over 2.5 years since it last had paying passengers on board.
That means that 9V-SKP is the last of the carrier’s superjumbos now in the hangar for refit, hopefully set to be rolled out next year.
The A380 is now being used extensively on the network, including to Hong Kong, London, Sydney and Shanghai.
Further expansion for the A380s in 2022 includes Melbourne, Delhi and a second daily Sydney service, though the Singapore – Frankfurt – New York route sadly downgrades to a Boeing 777-300ER next summer.
Fleet activity by registration
Here’s a breakdown of the SIA fleet of passenger aircraft based on recent revenue passenger or cargo-only flight activity, based on an analysis conducted on 31st December 2022.
Airbus A350s
All but one of the 30-strong Airbus A350-900 Long Haul fleet was active in December 2022, with 29 aircraft flying revenue services over the last two weeks (9V-SMI is in maintenance).
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| Aircraft | Location | Last flew | Days ago |
| 9V-SMA | SIN | 30 Dec 22 | 1 |
| 9V-SMB | SIN | 31 Dec 22 | 0 |
| 9V-SMC | SIN | 30 Dec 22 | 1 |
| 9V-SMD | SIN | 31 Dec 22 | 0 |
| 9V-SME | SIN | 31 Dec 22 | 0 |
| 9V-SMF | SIN | 31 Dec 22 | 0 |
| 9V-SMG | SIN | 31 Dec 22 | |