Dates have been set for the debut of Silkair’s newest aircraft, the single-aisle Boeing 737 Max 8, to Australia, with the aircraft set to fly to both Darwin and Cairns next month.
The Max 8 will debut in Australia on Sunday, January 7, 2018 on the airline’s non-stop Singapore-Darwin service, followed by Cairns the day after with the following schedules:
Singapore (SIN)-Darwin (DRW)
| Flight No. | From | To | Departs | Arrives | Days |
| MI801 | Singapore (SIN) | Darwin (DRW) | 0830 | 1450 | Wed, Fri, Sun |
| MI803 | 1955 | 0200+1 | Mon, Thu | ||
| MI802 | Darwin (DRW) | Singapore (SIN) | 1555 | 1900 | Tue |
| 1545 | Wed, Fri | ||||
| MI804 | 0250 | 0610 | Tue, Fri |
Singapore (SIN)-Cairns (CNS):
| Flight No. | From | To | Departs | Arrives | Days |
| MI811 | Singapore (SIN) | Cairns (CNS) | 0110 | 1000 | Mon, Thu, Sat |
| MI813 | 0825 | 1720 | Wed, Fri | ||
| MI814 | Cairns (CNS) | Singapore (SIN) | 1810 | 2305 | Wed, Fri |
| MI812 | 1055 | 1600 | Thu, Sat | ||
| 1120 | 1645 | Mon |
Silkair, the regional subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, took delivery of its first Max 8 in October, which it now flies to Hiroshima, and has a total of 37 on order.
The carrier’s single-aisle Max 8 is configured with 12 business class and 144 economy class seats. Business class features seats with 49 inches of pitch between seats and a recline of 12 inches, along with in-seat power and USB ports. Seats are laid out in three rows of 2-2.
Economy, meanwhile, is configured 3-3 and seats also have USB charging ports – of particular use considering the aircraft’s in-flight entertainment (IFE) system, Silkair Studio, is accessed via travellers’ own devices rather than in-seat screens. Economy class seats also have a seat-back tablet and smartphone holder.
The airline also plans to fly the aircraft on its services to Kathmandu in Nepal as well as Hyderabad and Bangalore in India. Back in March, Silkair began codesharing with Vistara on a number of the Indian carrier’s domestic routes.
Meanwhile earlier this month it was announced that both Singapore Airlines and Silkair would begin placing their codes on flights to about 30 destinations that are only operated by low-cost subsidiary Scoot within the Singapore Airlines Group.
