Singapore Airlines (SIA) bid a colourful farewell to the last of its Boeing B747-400s with special flights between Singapore and Hong Kong on Friday, April 6. Flights SQ747 and SQ748 brought the 38-year relationship between the “jumbo” and the carrier to a close.
“But we celebrate what the ‘Queen of the Skies’ has enabled us to offer our customers – new routes and innovative products and services,” said SIA’s executive vice-president commercial Mak Swee Wah during festive ceremonies at the Hong Kong International Airport, which also featured a small exhibit flagging highlights of the B747’s achievements. These included amenities we now take for granted such as the serving of gourmet meals and champagne, lounges and “slumberette” cabins with divans that converted into beds, obviously the precursors of today’s flat-beds.
SIA simultaneously received two B747s in 1973, trying them out with regional services from Singapore to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Taipei and Tokyo before sending them across the Pacific to cities such as Los Angeles. Retired Captain Kenneth Toft, who flew the revolutionary aircraft as assistant pilot at the time, recalled: “It was a pilot’s aircraft. It was so gentle and responded to you very well.”
On the B747s retirement, he remarked: “My feelings are mixed – sadness and acceptance – but we have to move on.”
Also on the journey was the face of SIA in the 1990s, "Singapore Girl" Lim Suet Kwee, who has been immortalised by a wax figure in Madame Tussauds. Now an executive, Lim admitted that she could still fit into the sarong kebaya, that slinky national costume of Singapore closely associated with SIA’s flight attendants.
Taking B747’s place as SIA’s new "Queen" is the Airbus A380, which made headlines in February when Qantas was forced to ground one of these superjumbos due to cracks found in the wings during a routine check (see story here). Mak of SIA told Business Traveller: “We continue to work with Airbus to address the issue and root causes as well as conduct inspections. But we assure the public that at no time was safety ever compromised.”
All of the airline's B747s have either been sold or returned to their leasing companies. The aircraft that flew its last flight for SIA now belongs to Transaero Airlines of Russia.
For more details, visit www.SIAjourneys.com
Margie T Logarta
