Surging passenger growth prompt SIA group airlines to unveil bigger and better fleets in 2017

Its overall fleet will expand by 3%.

Expect more seat capacity from Singapore’s flag-carrier’s group of airlines, as its overall fleet is expected to expand from 168 planes at March 2016 to 173 planes at March 2017.

According to a report by CIMB, however, SIA’s mainline is not expected to see much change in its fleet size, implying that ASK capacity growth will be close to zero.

“During FY17, SIA is expected to take delivery of 12 A350-900s (on top of three delivered in January-March 2016), but a similar number of A330s might be returned to operating lessors,” the report said.

Meanwhile, while SilkAir is not expected to see net fleet growth come 2017, CIMB says the composition of its fleet makes a difference, with smaller 128-seat A319s and 150-seat A320s being replaced by larger 162-seat B737-800s.

“This fleet replacement process has been ongoing since early 2014, and this is the reason why SilkAir had targeted ASK growth of 13% for FY16 (although SilkAir achieved only 9% yoy growth in the April-November 2015 period), and should also deliver ASK growth for FY17,” the report said.

Scoot, on the other hand, will grow its fleet to 17 B787 Dreamliners by March 2017, from 10 in March 2016, and just six in March 2015.

“The B777-200s will be fully retired by March this year. Scoot targeted 30% ASK capacity growth in FY16, but so far achieved only 15% yoy growth in the April-November 2015 period, due to delays in certain route approvals,” the report added.