Goodbye B747s! Hello A380s!

Boeing 747-412 (9V-SMU) rotating from Sydney International Airport. Copyrights to the owner of this picture.


Airbus A380-841 (9V-SKE) coming into Singapore Changi Airport. Copyrights to the owner of this picture.

The 747s will soon be gone in SQ colours. SQ has decided to remove all of the remaining 747s from the fleet. It will be a sad moment as the number of 747s decrease and are now operating for other carriers or maybe, scrapped. Some are even converted into a Cargo/Freight Plane from the passenger ones. Whatever it is, these old workhorses will be remebered. The 747s were introduced in late July 1973 with its first variant, the Boeing 747-200 series. Eventually, the number of 747s grew with the introduction of the -300 series "Big Top" and -400 series "Mega Top". For a moment, SQ was the World's Largest Operator of the Boeing 747-400. But now, all of these seem to fade as more technological advanced aircraft are introduced from its rival, Airbus.

The Airbus A380 project started back in 1996 when they, too wanted to produce the biggest aircraft. At that time, their largest aircraft was the Airbus A340-600 version or the "Flying Pencil". SQ made its first purchase for the 380s back in 2000 with 10 firm orders and 15 on options. SQ then decided to order more with 19 on firm and 6 on options as Airbus improved its technology in the A380 was SQ was very satisfied with it. SQ finally received its first A380 on 15th October, 2007 after 2 years of delay. The aircraft registered as F-WWSA and finally 9V-SKA (MSN003) was handed over to SQ at Toulouse, France. It went into commercial service on 25th of October, 2007 from Singapore to Sydney. SQ was also the first airline in the world to operate the A380 eventhough Emirates was the first to order the A380.

Today, SQ has 6 A380s and will be receiving their next soon. The 747 still has around 11 and will exit from service on March 2010. The old work horses will be remembered as the growth of the biggest airplane today.