In an operation lasting a few hours, two Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) Airbus A380s were towed on their final trip to Changi Exhibition Centre, where they will be taken apart.
This is the first time that SIA is scrapping its superjumbos locally.
The planes, registration numbers 9V-SKH and 9V-SKG, are among seven A380s that SIA had announced in November last year it would retire, amid a first half net loss of S$3.5 billion as passenger numbers fell by almost 99 per cent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The aircraft were delivered in May and June 2009, according to data from aviation website Planespotters.
Five A380s that SIA previously retired – all of which had been in service for about a decade – were flown overseas before being stored or parted out.
“From my perspective, usually aircraft are parted out overseas,” FlightGlobal Asia managing editor Greg Waldron told CNA. “It’s quite a big industrial operation to part out aircraft.”
An SIA spokesperson told CNA the decision to scrap the A380s locally was based on factors including the expertise of local and international vendors, the closure of international borders and the cost of dismantling the aircraft.
A road closure notice on the Land Transport Authority’s OneMotoring website said the towing operation was organised by Hunt Way Management Consultancy Services.