SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) – Singapore Airways (SIA) will change its fleet of Boeing 747-400F freighters with the newly launched, extra fuel-efficient Airbus A350F freighter plane.
The mainboard-listed airline group has signed a letter of intent with the French planemaker to purchase seven A350F freighters, with choices for one more 5, it mentioned in a bourse submitting on Wednesday (Dec 15).
The nationwide provider added that the deliveries are scheduled to start within the fourth quarter of 2025, making SIA the primary airline to function this new era of wide-body freighter plane.
The freighters, underneath the settlement, might be delivered instead of the 15 Airbus A320neo and two Airbus A350-900 passenger plane which might be in its order e-book. This permits, SIA famous, the airline group to handle its capital expenditure whereas persevering with with the important freighter renewal.
The Airbus A350F can carry the same quantity of freight because the Boeing 747-400F, however burns as much as 40 per cent much less gasoline and includes a longer vary.
The renewal comes because the group reported a file cargo-flown income of greater than $1.8 billion for the primary half of economic yr 2022, or up 51.2 per cent, amid a capability crunch in air and ocean freight.
Cargo has cushioned the monetary influence of the pandemic on SIA as air journey has been hit.
SIA chief government Goh Choon Phong mentioned: “The pandemic has underscored the significance of investing within the cargo enterprise, and bolstering the SIA Group’s various income streams. Air cargo additionally performs an important function in holding open world provide chains, particularly to move important items throughout these occasions.”
Cargo operations registered a month-to-month load issue of 83.9 per cent in November – 1.6 proportion factors decrease yr on yr – because the 40.8 per cent hike in capability outstripped the 38.1 per cent rise in load, SIA’s November working statistics launched on Wednesday confirmed.
Its passenger capability, measured in out there seat-kilometres, rose 10.6 per cent month on month to achieve 37 per cent of pre-pandemic ranges.
Its passenger load issue, measuring the share of obtainable seating capability stuffed by paying passengers, improved by 9.2 proportion factors month on month to 29.1 per cent, primarily as a result of stronger demand for flights on the quarantine-free vaccinated journey lanes.
SIA expects its passenger capability for December 2021 to achieve round 45 per cent of pre-pandemic ranges – greater than its earlier projection of 43 per cent – whereas that for January 2022 to be round 47 per cent of pre-pandemic ranges.