SIA, Scoot park aircraft at Alice Springs

Singapore

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) has parked four of its jumbo Airbus A380s and three Boeing 777-200ERs at Alice Springs in Australia for storage, The Business Times has learnt.

Aside from the A380s and B777s, the group's budget unit Scoot has parked two of its single-aisle Airbus A320ceo aircraft at the same Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage facility at Alice Springs.

Confirming this, a spokesperson for SIA said: "The impact of Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in significantly reduced demand across the aviation industry and as a result Singapore Airlines has reduced its scheduled capacity by 96 per cent. Of a group fleet of 200 aircraft, only 10 are currently operating on scheduled passenger services. As a result, Singapore Airlines will store aircraft in facilities around the world to ensure they are appropriately maintained during this period of depressed demand and activity."

The spokesperson added: "We will continue to monitor the situation and, when appropriate, will return the aircraft to Singapore ahead of reintroducing them to our operations."

Following the issues with Boeing's 737 Max, SilkAir had already stored six of its B737 Max aircraft last year at Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory, where the dry climate is seen as more conducive for aircraft storage than Singapore's wet and humid weather. Other carriers which have already reportedly stored planes are Lufthansa, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines.

Like other airlines around the globe, Singapore's flag carrier has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, as countries slammed their borders shut and travel demand evaporated.

BT reported in March that SIA was most likely to park its double-decker A380s given they are bigger and far less fuel efficient than next-generation aircraft such as the A350 and Boeing 787-10.

In an alert on Friday, the SIA Group said SIA and SilkAir would operate a reduced schedule of services until June, and that both carriers would continue to adjust its services in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.

This week, the airline is holding an extraordinary general meeting to get shareholder approval as it seeks to raise funds to tide it through this turbulent period. It is planning to raise S$5.3 billion via a rights issue and S$3.5 billion through 10-year mandatory convertible bonds (MCB); in addition, it will be seeking shareholder approval to further issue up to another S$6.2 billion in additional MCBs to be offered to shareholders in time to come. In the meantime, it had arranged a S$4 billion bridging loan facility with DBS Bank to fulfil its liquidity requirements.

SIA's largest shareholder Temasek Holdings is underwriting both issuances as it throws its weight behind the national carrier.

Shares in SIA closed at S$6.04 on Friday, down 10 cents.