Singapore Airlines uses A320s, B777s as makeshift freighters

Singapore Airlines Group has revealed in its half-yearly earnings release that it has removed seats from two B777-300(ER)s operated by Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) and from two A320-200s operated by Scoot (TR, Singapore Changi) to deploy them on cargo-only flights. The group has since confirmed the identity of the aircraft to be B777s 9V-SWM (msn 34578) and 9V-SWN (msn 34579) and A320s 9V-TAZ (msn 4879)and 9V-TRN (msn 5915). While Singapore Airlines has extensively used passenger aircraft for cargo-only flights since the pandemic began, it has so far refrained from makeshift conversions. The group said it would “proactively grow [cargo] capacity” as it expected yields and load factors for freight to remain high due to the depressed availability of bellyhold capacity on passenger flights. In the first half of the fiscal year, ended on September 30, 2020, the group posted a 28.3% increase in cargo revenue, in stark contrast with an 80.4% drop in total revenue. The group’s cargo network has also expanded to cover 61 cities, up from 26 on April 1, 2020, with cargo revenue constituting over 75% of the group’s entire revenue stream in the first six months of this fiscal year. According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Singapore Airlines currently operates a fleet of seven dedicated freighters, all of them B747-400(FSCD)s. Other group units – Scoot and SilkAir (MI, Singapore Changi) – do not have any dedicated freighters. Singapore Airlines Group also confirmed an impairment of SGD1.3 billion Singaporean dollars (USD1 billion) recorded due to the retirement of 26 surplus aircraft, and an additional charge of SGD127 million (USD94 million) due to the liquidation of NokScoot (XW, Bangkok Don Mueang) and the retirement of seven B777-200s leased to the Thai joint-venture. In terms of other fleet developments, Singapore Airlines revealed it had reached an agreement with Airbus regarding rescheduled deliveries, without going into details, and said it was close to a similar deal with Boeing. The carrier has nineteen A350-900s, twenty B777-9s, and twenty-nine B787-10s on firm order, Scoot – twenty-nine A320-200Ns, six A321-200Ns, three B787-8s, and two B787-9s, while Silk Air has thirty-one B737-8s due. However, Silk Air is due to be integrated into Singapore Airlines itself over the coming years. While the first B737-800 has already been repainted into Singapore Airlines’ livery, the transfer of the aircraft to Singapore Airlines’ AOC is not expected before the first quarter of 2021.