Ex SilkAir Boeing 737 seen flying in Singapore Airlines livery

9V-MGA, an ex-SilkAir Boeing 737-800 was seen making her first flight today in Singapore Airlines livery. At approximately 1445hrs today, 9V-MGA departed from Changi Airport for an air test and came back at approximately 1652hrs.

Image Credit: Jun Jie

The aircraft, which is around 7 years old was delivered to SilkAir back in 2014. She was the first Boeing 737 aircraft for SilkAir and was initially delivered in the 25th anniversary livery. The livery was removed after a few years and she wore the signature SilkAir livery ever since.

Image Credits: Jivesh C, @aviation_jets_thrust

In early September this year, photos of 9V-MGA in her Singapore Airlines livery surfaced on the internet. The Singapore Airlines livery clears any doubts about the merger between Singapore Airlines and SilkAir.

The merger of SilkAir with Singapore Airlines was announced back in 2018. The reason for the regional wing to merge with her parent company was due to two main reasons.

Photo Credit: Jun Jie

The first reason was to increase the brand awareness. The Singapore Airlines tittle is very well established worldwide, but in places like Europe, SilkAir is a name that is not known to many. Some may have even mistaken the regional wing as another airline. Hence, by merging both airlines together under the same brand, customers will not mistake SilkAir as another carrier and they will also be aware that the airline owns both wide-body and narrow-body aircrafts and operates short-haul, medium-haul and long-haul routes.

Image Credit: Keiran

The second reason to the merger was to ensure the consistency of the product and services are as close as possible across the Singapore Airlines Group network. The cabin products between SilkAir and Singapore Airlines is different. Whereas comparing Cathay Pacific and her regional arm, Cathy Dragon, the cabin products of the regional arm is like the parent company. By renewing the SilkAir products with new lie-flat seats in Business and installing seat-back IFE systems in both Business and Economy, this will help to increase the consistency. At the same time, this will help Singapore Airlines close the gap between other competitors.