SilkAir ends own operations before Singapore Airlines merger

SilkAir (MI, Singapore Changi) ended its independent operations on May 6, 2021, and therefore completed the operational merger with its parent company Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi). Full integration is expected to take another few weeks. The regional full-service carrier’s last flight was MI411 from Kathmandu to Singapore Changi. The flight was operated by B737-800 9V-MGI (msn 44225). The route to Nepal had been Silk Air’s only remaining service since the penultimate route, to Cebu, was terminated on April 25, AirNav RadarBox ADS-B data shows. Services to Kathmandu were originally scheduled to transfer to Singapore Airlines on May 26, but the premature termination was forced by a renewed ban on all international flights to/from Nepal due to a new wave of COVID-19 infections. As such, the parent company has yet to restart this route in-house. Singapore Airlines Group continues to operate sporadic test flights of its B737-800s under SilkAir’s code but the carrier no longer plans any scheduled operations. “SilkAir will be fully integrated into Singapore Airlines in a few weeks, including livery, crew, etc. This process began a few years ago and will now be completed in June,” a spokesperson for the group told ch-aviation. Although Singapore Airlines does not file schedules for the B737-800s taken over from SilkAir and inducted into the mainline, it has so far inducted nine units of the type into its fleet and deploys them on a range of regional scheduled services. It is also in the process of taking over six B737-8s from SilkAir, as well as 31 units of the type which remain on order from Boeing (eight of which are due for delivery by the end of March 2022). SilkAir still has eight B737-800s in storage, one of which has already been sold to an undisclosed customer. The group put the remaining seven on sale in March 2021, indicating that they would be available for redelivery from July 2021.