A Singapore Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 recently made its maiden voyage, traveling from the United States to Singapore with a couple interesting stops along the way.
Delivery Flight: Singapore Airlines 737 From USA To Singapore
A Live and Let’s Fly reader sent me a screenshot of a Singapore Airlines flight departing from Hawaii on the Plane Finder flight tracking app. He had seen the plane taking off at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu earlier. My interest was instantly piqued: why was a Singapore Airlines 737-8 MAX flying from Honolulu to Guam?
But it did not take long to deduce that it must be a delivery flight. Sure enough, SQ8890 left Boeing Field in Seattle (BFI) on 11 December, landing in Honolulu (HNL) that afternoon. The following morning, it continued to the U.S. territory of Guam (GUM). After resting another day, it continued to Singapore (SIN), landing on 14 December at 1:30PM.
The tail number of the new aircraft is 9V-MBI.
You see, a 737 MAX 8 cannot just fly across the Pacific Ocean without stopping. Its range is 3,550 nautical miles. In utilizing Honolulu and Guam, Singapore took advantage of natural stopping points along the way and also the fact that United Airlines has maintenance bases at both airports.
Singapore Airlines has ordered 37 737 MAX 8 aircraft to refresh its narrow body fleet. These aircraft will feature 10 business class seats much like Jet Blue Mint’s first generation seat (including throne seats) and 144 seats in economy class.
Destinations will include:
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- Indonesia
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Nepal
- Thailand
Currently Guam and Honolulu are not scheduled destinations…
CONCLUSION
It’s not everyday that you see a Singapore Airlines 737 in Honolulu or Guam…or even Seattle for that matter. But with over 20 planes still to be delivered, keep an eye out for a Singapore Airlines 737 MAX 8 next time you are in Honolulu or Guam. You might just be witnessing the next delivery flight.
These type of non-trip review articles are great to read. Keep incorporating them into the blog 🙂
Would agree with that! My first go to travel blog now . Too much rubbish on omaat now.
Can I request an article setting out that I’m 100% going to get my miles from simply miles? 🙂
Wasn’t it (at least at one point) 100% feasible to fly BDA-EWR-LAX-HNL-MAJ-KWA-KSA-PNI-TKK-GUM-MNL-HKG-SIN all on a 737 on UA metal?
Yes! And hopefully this summer it will be from the Azores all the way to MNL.
This is towards the top of my bucket list to do the entire thing. With stops at each on the way.
Sounds miserable unless there are lie-flat seats on the longer legs.
Somewhere I have a video of the delivery flight in 1980 of Boeing 737-200 VR-UED to Royal Brunei Airlines, from SEA to BWN, a very similar journey. However, they went the other way, via YQX, LTN and I cannot remember where else, but at least two more stops. Videos were taken during the long flight, 3 days I think, and compiled into record of the trip, a documentary.
I went to meet the flight at LTN as my parents were on board. It was in March, so it had been snowy in Gander, probably the only time that aircraft ever saw snow!
Since when SIA started flying narrow body planes?
Ever since their subsidiary, SilkAir, was merged into Singapore Airlines earlier this year.
For delivery flights, they strip the cabin of all seats, replace them with tanks of fuel.. so the range will be enormous. This arrangement is not for commercial flights evidently.
But I presume if it had to stop in HNL and GUM than perhaps there were not fuel tanks in place of passenger seats?
The flight distance from HNL to Guam is 3800 Miles, given the published max range of 737-8 Max is 3550… I have to assume they must have had some extra fuel. Given that delivery planes probably have less load and probably have better fuel effeciency, but that would be cutting it to close…
All good though ..thank you for interesting article surely piques the my curiosity
Yep. Makes sense.
Is that the published range though with a full payload? I imagine empty of passengers and cargo it is significantly more. I was under the impression that all deliveries were with full interiors and ready to fly.
I thought I was crazy when I saw a Singapore Airlines plane at HNL last weekend!
No they dont strip the cabins of all seats.Delivery flights from the Seattle to Melbourne Australia stopped over on Pacific Islands and this was going back 25 years ago with 737-400s.