Singapore Airlines - Boeing 777 vulnerable

According to an article in the Business Times, SIA has responded to reports from the British aviation authorities regarding the British Airways B777-200 crash landing at Heathrow in January 2008. British investigators had concluded that there was a “high probability” that the crash was caused by a loss of power on approach to Heathrow after prolonged exposure to abnormally cold conditions affected its fuel delivery system for the Rolls Royce Trent engines.

As the world’s largest operator of 777s, SIA’s fleet could be similarly vulnerable. However, SIA says that its 777s which are powered by the Trent are used on regional flights, where exposure to prolonged cold is rare. Furthermore, 777-300ERs that SIA uses on its longer-haul colder routes were powered by GE engines, which use different fuel flow systems.

SIA’s safety and maintenance track record has been impeccable, and continues to monitor the situation, it says. It also complies with all US Federal Aviation Administration air-worthiness directives. While there have been calls for a component redesign to prevent future incidents, these have not been implemented. If implemented, this could cause some down time for its 58 Trent-powered 777s. We will keep tabs on this development.

SIA releases its February load factors this evening. We expect to see continued softening of passenger demand, in line with January’s statistics of a sharp 6.3 percentage point decline in passenger load factors to 74.1, while cargo loads seemed to have bottomed out at a dismal 54.2. Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS) own reporting of February operating data also indicate a slowdown of operations in Changi airport, which is in line with statistics released by Changi Airport. This is also in broadly in line with our expectations.

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