Singapore Airlines Boeing 737 Max takes flight

Singapore Airlines Boeing 737 Max took-off for the first passenger flight today (23th November 2021). At 1013hrs, 9V-MBC took to the skies as SQ728, bounded for Phuket. She is the first Singapore Airlines Boeing 737 Max to be operated for passenger service.

9V-MBC taking-off today in clear blue skies, bounded for Phuket. Image by Jun Jie (@limjj03)

The aircraft, 9V-MBC are amongst the 6 737 Max that Singapore Airlines acquired from now defunct regional subsidiary carrier, SilkAir. The merger between SilkAir and the National Flag Carrier saw the move of several Boeing 737NGs and the whole Boeing 737 Max fleet to Singapore Airlines from SilkAir.

The move also saw the retrofits to the cabin of the Boeing 737 Max, which are now rebranded as the Boeing 737-8. The new cabin will feature 10 Business Class seats, as well as 144 Economy class Seats.

Back when 9V-MBA and the other Boeing 737 Max aircrafts was still with SilkAir, Image by Keiran (@niner.victor)

From the understanding of the information available from Singapore Airlines website, the 10 Business class seats, which are designed by London-based Factorydesign and manufactured by Thompson Aero Seating, will feature a seat width of up to 22 inches, pitch of 44 inches, a 16-inch IFE screen, In-seat Power supply, 2 USB charging ports, and will also feature a reclinable fully-flat bed that fully recline to 76 inches.

For Economy seats, which are manufactured by Collins Aerospace, will feature a reclinable seat with a width of 18-inches, pitch of 30 inches, a 10-inch IFE screen, 1 USB charging ports, as well as a 5 inches seat recline.

9V-MBE being towed out in SQ livery, Image by Jun Jie (@limjj03)

As of now, Singapore Airlines has 6 Boeing 737-8 aircraft, all of which that was acquired from SilkAir already, with 8 more 737-8 that is yet to be delivered to the airline. Once delivered, the aircrafts will undergo retrofit to the cabin, as well as getting painted to the Singapore Airlines colors.