Singapore Airlines retires 7 A380s, fewer and fewer giants of the skies will resume flying
Singapore Airlines during the presentation of its partial financial data for the current fiscal year made it official that it will decommission [...]
Singapore Airlines
SIN
Singapore Airlines during the presentation of its partial financial figures for the current fiscal year made it official that it will decommission 26 aircraft, nearly one-fifth of its current fleet.
In this article:
What planes will leave the fleet ?
Five models will be involved in the cutoff, three are aircraft used directly by the company, while two are painted in SilkAir livery, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines. In detail they will be taken out of service:
- 7 Airbus A380
- 4 Boeing 777-200ER
- 4 Boeing 777-300s
- 9 Airbus A320
- 2 Airbus A319s
Obviously it will be the A380 models older to be cut, those still have the old fittings and do not feature the first-class suites or double beds in business. As for single-aisle aircraft, only the 737 in the Silk Air fleet will remain operational.
A380 and Singapore Airlines, it had been love at first sight
The city-state company was the first customer to receive the sky giant from Airbus in 2007. And it was also the first to decommission the aircraft at the expiration of its 10th year. A total of 24 A380s were in service for the alliance-participating company Star Alliance.
There are 19 giants left in service today, or rather parked and ready to go, and the average age of the fleet is very low since the last 5 aircraft were delivered between 2017 and 2019.
That this day would come was clear, not least because so many other airlines have made similar decisions. It is likely that the A380s, some of them configured with the brand new "suites" of first class will continue to fly to Sidney, London and Frankfurt i.e. the most popular routes to Singapore.
In recent days, the company has Turned one of its A380s into a restaurant, an initiative that has been very successful but obviously cannot save budgets.
On the contrary, we will probably not see the connection to New York via Frankfurt again, and only the flight will remain direct, (the longest in the world), but which is operated with the brand new A350LR
Who still flies the A380, what will happen to the decommissioned planes ?
There is no second-hand market for this model; only 15 airlines have this plane in their fleet, and many of them have announced its decommissioning, just because of the pandemic. In detail here is the situation:
- Emirates. It is the leading operator with more than 100 aircraft in its fleet, currently fly to a handful of destinations
- Qantas. The Australian carrier's entire fleet is parked and will return to flying (perhaps) in 2022
- Air France. It has permanently withdrawn the entire fleet over the past few months.
- Lufthansa. The company announced that the planes (10) will return to flight only when the market demands it
- Korean Air. Only one route currently has the 10 A380s in use. The flight between the Korean capital with the city of Guanzhou
- China Southern. They currently connect Guanzhou airport with Korea and other domestic destinations in China
- Malaysia Airlines. The entire fleet (10 aircraft) is currently parked
- THAI Airways. Again, the planes are hibernating.
- British Airways. BA's 12 livery giants will return to flight, perhaps, in 2021
- Asiana Airlines. No plans have been announced regarding the future of the 6 aircraft, very young, in the fleet
- Qatar Airways. The company had announced before the pandemic that it would begin withdrawing A380s from service starting in 2024, now it is unclear what will happen
- Etihad Airways It is likely that, as with Air France, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates will decide not to get this model off the ground any more
- All Nippon Airways It was the last customer to order three planes, the last one is ready and awaiting delivery. Flying only to Hawaii, they may be the last to be decommissioned
Then there is the only operator that has bought (leased) a used A380, this is the Portuguese company HiFly, which specializes in charter flights and wet leasing, i.e., renting out aircraft and crews to other companies. It had purchased the sixth aircraft produced by Airbus and decommissioned by Singapore. Just in recent days it announced that it will not renew its three-year lease when it expires.
