The soul of an airline lies in its fleet. The ability of an airline to combine the usage of aircraft types to suit the needs of its operations is crucial, an ancient art not difficult to learn with experience but disastrous if done wrongly. In the first instalment of this series, we look at the operating models of various airlines and see how they use their fleets.
By: Gareth
Published On: 1 December 2023, 9.00pm (GMT +8)
Singapore Airlines (SQ/SIA)
A Singapore Airlines Boeing 737-800. Photo: Jia Jun (@planespotter_9v)
As true patriotic Singaporeans, let us begin with a discussion on our country’s flag carrier.
Singapore Airlines’ workhorses are their 62 Airbus A350-900 aircraft, the largest fleet of a single operator in the world. Among these are 9V-SMF (foreground in above picture), which is the 10000th Airbus aircraft to be built. SIA’s A350s are categorised into those for medium-range (regional) use, long-range use, and the six crown jewels of the fleet: the -900 ULRs, specially for flights to New York’s John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty airports. Each of these configurations gets more premium-heavy than the previous, with business class seats ranging from 40 in the medium-haul configuration to 67 in the ULR.
This variety showcases the versatility of the A350 - a medium and long-haul aircraft rolled into one.
The other main show in SIA’s fleet is their Boeing 777-300ER series, mainly used on flights to Europe and Australia to complement the A350. According to Flightradar24, most of SIA’s destinations to Europe are served by both A350s and Boeing 777 aircraft. It seems like the 777s are simply there to add variety to the fleet, rather than serving a market on their own. Of course, the preference for long-range aircraft might swing to Boeing in a few decades when the A350 becomes outdated (read our previous Friday Report for why the A350 can’t be upgraded).
For the medium-haul market, SIA opts for a plethora of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, introduced in 2018 to replace the Airbus A330s. The main attraction is the 787-10, for which SIA was the launch customer.
A Singapore Airlines Boeing 787-10 landing in Singapore. Photo: Haotian (@plane.tian)
The -10 is designed to provide comfort on short routes. SIA uses its 787s similar to how many US airlines used 767s in the 1990s - wide-body comfort on short flights, but able to fly long-distance if necessary. The 787-10 is longer than the more popular -9s, but its range is compressed because SIA simply does not need a third long-range aircraft. The seat configuration is reminiscent of medium-haul A350s, with only 36 flat bed business class seats, and 301 economy-class seats. The comfort features of the 787 cabin turn short 4-6 hour flights into sanctuaries in the clouds, on journeys short enough to feel comfortable in a small seat, but long enough to value some peace and quiet. Currently, this aircraft type features heavily on flights to Jakarta, Perth, Taipei, Tokyo (Narita and Haneda), and Seoul (Incheon).
The types described above so nearly complete the plethora of SIA’s operations that for 15 years after the retirement of the Airbus A310-300 models, it operated with only widebody aircraft. Since the integration of subsidiary SilkAir into the main airline in 2020, however, SIA has started operating SilkAir’s old Boeing 737-800 aircraft, and also ordered 737 MAX series aircraft of their own. The 737s make up a small proportion of the fleet, with 24 aircraft in total (8 -800s and 16 MAXs). These mainly serve short regional flights that are unable to fill up the larger A350s and 787s.
In summary, Singapore Airlines is mainly concerned with connecting Singapore to the world, and differentiates its fleet based on aircraft flying different distances away from home.
Emirates Airlines
An Emirates A380-800, one of the only 2 types of aircraft in its fleet. Photo: Haotian (@plane.tian)
Emirates, however, is not as obsessed with getting the world to visit Dubai. Over 80% of its passengers simply use Dubai as a transit hub to get to their destinations. Such an operating model works for Emirates because of its location on the Arabian peninsula.
To explain why it seems so logical to fly via Dubai, consider an Australian flying to Europe for a holiday. The only major direct flight (does a refuelling stop in Singapore still make it a direct flight?) between the two continents is Qantas’ Sydney to London service. Qantas also operates one flight a day from Perth to Rome, but Perth is so far from everywhere else that that flight is irrelevant to most ordinary Australians (I’m sorry, Perth). The limitation, therefore, is that you must start in Sydney and end in London. With Emirates, however, you can begin your journey in any of the 4 Australian cities that it serves, connect in Dubai, and end up in any of its 32 destinations in Europe. Etihad and Qatar Airways run on the same business model, but Emirates is by far the most successful at connecting passengers between the two continents via the UAE.
To achieve this purpose, Emirates currently only operates two aircraft types. The hub-and-spoke model holds if you are able to firstly transport passengers to your hub, and secondly transport passengers from your hub to other major hubs. And the two types achieve just those two purposes! Fleet optimisation at its finest!
Emirates is the largest operator of both the types it operates, with 116 A350s and 133 777s in total, mostly -300ERs. It looks oddly satisfying to look at the outside of Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport (above picture), the world’s largest airport terminal, and admire the sea of Emirates liveries stretching out towards the horizon. This behemoth of a hub operates 215 flights a day to 135 destinations, and it is simply a marvel to see how the place runs like clockwork to turn gates around for over two hundred planes a day.
An Emirates B777-300ER. Photo: Emirates (www.emirates.com)
The 777s serve to transport passengers from smaller cities to Dubai. Flights from destinations that aren’t already major aviation hubs, like Copenhagen, Cairo, and Budapest, are operated by 777s, the smaller of the two aircraft. As demand for flights from these small cities shrinks, the carrier has ordered 787-10s to replace 777s in this role, with deliveries expected to start from 2025.
The world-famous A380s transport passengers from Dubai to major cities like London, Paris, Singapore, and New York. The large capacity of the A380 is perfect to fill with passengers going between major cities. It doesn’t matter that hardly anyone landing at Dubai airport actually wants to visit Dubai, or that the city is hardly a major economic hub. The mere presence of the world’s largest hub-and-spoke airline makes Dubai a major city according to airlines, because there are so many flights from Dubai to major cities filled with passengers who want to get to major cities that you can fly pretty much anywhere in the world from Dubai in 2 connecting flights or less.
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