Meet the newest members of Singapore Airlines' fleet

SIA will splurge US$7.5b on these.

According to OCBC, as part of its efforts to maintain a young and modern fleet, SIA announced yesterday that it will spend US$7.5b on five Airbus A380s and 20 A350s (delivery of the new planes to begin in 2017).

Here's more from OCBC:

These will bring its total firm purchases and lease orders in place with Airbus and Boeing to 68 new wide-body aircraft.

However, as part of this new order, Airbus will acquire SIA’s five A340s. These planes are currently deployed in the non-stop, long-haul flight sectors betwee nSingapore and the United States (Newark, New Jersey and Los Angeles, California respectively), and their impending removal will mark the cessation of these services in 4QCY2013 although services to the US will still be available via Tokyo and Frankfurt.

On a related note, SIA also announced that it will transfer 20 B787 planes on firm order (due for delivery from 2014) to its low-cost subsidiary, Scoot, to aid in its expansion growth and to replace its existing B777 fleet.

While the order is a sizable one, we are neutral on its impact given the delivery timeframe of the planes.