Singapore Airlines inks LOI for 7+5 A350 freighters

Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) has signed a Letter of Intent with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) for the purchase of seven A350Fs with options for a further five aircraft.

Deliveries of the nascent freighters are scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2025, when the Singapore Airlines Group subsidiary will become the type’s launch operator. The agreement also includes a swap with fifteen A320-200Ns and two A350-900s that are in the group’s order backlog. This will allow the airline to manage its capital expenditure, while continuing with its essential freighter renewal programme.

“This agreement with Airbus reinforces SIA’s position as a leading global air cargo carrier, while advancing our sustainability goals,” Goh Choon Phong, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Airlines, said in a statement. “It also ensures that we are prudent with our capital expenditure, and adjusts our passenger aircraft order book to give us the flexibility needed to navigate uncertainties in the recovery trajectory. The A350Fs will replace our seven B747-400(FSCD)s, with the options providing the ability to adapt our requirements to future demand in the cargo market.”

According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Singapore Airlines’ widebody passenger fleet entails forty-seven A350-900s, seven A350-900(ULR)s, seventeen A380-800s, seventeen B777-300(ER)s, and fifteen B787-10s. Its seven B747 freighters currently average 18.1 years of age.