Airline Profile: Singapore Airlines

Singaporean flag-carrier Singapore Airlines operates an extensive network of scheduled services linking 103 destinations in 41 countries throughout the Asia/Pacific region, Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America. Within Asia, Singapores' regional subsidiary Silk Air offers connections to 26 destinations.

History

Singapore Airlines (SIA)’s history dates back to the first scheduled flight by Malayan Airways, from Kallang Airport in Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang on 1 May 1947. Malayan expanded quickly and by the early 1950s served both a domestic network and around ten regional destinations.

A name change to Malaysia Airways took place in November 1963, following Malaya’s independence and the creation of the Federated States of Malaysia.

Singapore achieved independence from Malaysia in August 1964. A new joint national flag-carrier, Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (MSA), came into being on 1 January 1967.

Services to Europe were introduced in June 1971, with the Singapore - London route, flown with Boeing 707s via Bombay, Bahrain and Rome. Athens, Frankfurt and Zurich services followed in 1972.

After the short-lived creation of Mercury-Singapore Airlines in February 1972, the carrier was rebranded as Singapore Airlines (SIA), effective 1 October 1972. International services to new points in Europe, Australia and New Zealand were added during the 1970s.

In 1975 a wholly owned subsidiary charter airline, Tradewinds was launched. Tradewinds later added scheduled services to business markets within the region, and rebranded as Silk Air in 1992, so as to highlight this transformation.

In 1978 SIA gained transpacific access to the USA, initially with cargo only services, although passenger services soon followed.

SIA became the first airline to operate an international commercial flight across the Pacific Ocean with the Boeing 747-400 in 1989. In early 1995, Singapore Airlines Cargo opened a US$ 150 million "Superhub" airfreight terminal at the Changi Cargo Complex.

SIA acquired a 49 per cent share of Virgin Atlantic Airways for US $975 million on 31 March 2000. On 7 April 2001, SIA became the eleventh member of the Star Alliance.

In December 2003, a new subsidiary low cost carrier, Tiger Airways, in which SIA holds the largest single shareholding, was established. Tiger Airways launched services in September 2004. In February 2004, SIA was the first to operate the world’s longest non-stop commercial flight, between Singapore and Los Angeles, with an Airbus A340-500. In June 2004 this record was surpassed (in terms of distance) with the non-stop service to New York (Newark).

Plans announced in September 2007 for SIA and parent Temasek Holdings to jointly acquire a 24 per cent stake in China Eastern Airways, were unsuccessful after the deal was rejected In January 2008 by China Eastern's minority shareholders.

SIA operated the world's first scheduled service flown by the Airbus A380 on 25 October 2007 between Singapore and Sydney.

On 15 May 2008 SIA operated its first all-business class service, flown by an Airbus A340-500 between Singapore New York-Newark International.

Fleet

• 1x Airbus A330
• 5x Airbus A340
• 6x Airbus A380
• 13x Boeing 747
• 77x Boeing 777

For real-time air transport updates, subscribe to Air Transport Intelligence

For comprehensive fleet data, subscribe to ACAS

For indepth airline analysis, subscribe to Airline Business