Scoot To Become World's First 'All Boeing 787' Airline

Singapore Airlines' low-cost offshoot Scoot is set for a flood of Boeing 787s next year, taking delivery of as many as one per month from February to June 2015 in order to become the world's first 'all Dreamliner' airline.

The airline will receive its first Boeing 787-9 in November this year, parent group SIA confirmed in its Financial Year 2013-14 report released overnight.

Scoot says the first destinations for its Boeing 787-9s, which is expected to make its inaugural flight in December, will "include Australia, Japan and Taiwan".




A second 787-9 will also arrive before the end of February, SIA says, with one of the airline's Boeing 777-200s being decommissioned in the same timeframe.

Scoot aims to retire all six of its Boeing 777-200s, which were handed down from Singapore Airlines, by the middle of 2015 and shift to an all-Boeing 787 in order to parlay the Dreamliner's increased fuel efficiency into a healthier bottom line.

This would require the delivery of one Dreamliner per month from February through June, on top of November's debutante Dreamliner, to fully replace Scoot's six Boeing 777s.

A spokesperson for Scoot told Australian Business Traveller this evening that "the delivery of Scoot's Dreamliner fleet remains on schedule... we expect to transition to an all 787 fleet by middle of 2015."

The airline has 20 Boeing 787s on order, split into ten of the original Boeing 787-8 and ten of the larger, longer-range 787-9.
Inside Scoot's Boeing 787

Scoot's Boeing 787-9 will be kitted out with 35 'all-leather' premium seats in ScootBiz class, arranged in a 2-3-2 layout.

Each features include an extendable leg-rest and a 'cradle' recline position.


There'll also be AC power sockets for every traveller.


The bulk of the bird will of course be given over to a sea of 340 economy seats in a 3-3-3 configuration, for a total head count – or should that be bum count – of 375.


The standard economy seat is a slimline slab sans headrest.


However, the seats in the extra-legroom Stretch rows and child-free 'Scoot in Silence' cabin will sport adjustable headrests.

Pleasingly, all seats from tip to tail will enjoy access to AC power and "streaming Internet connectivity.

Scoot will receive only Boeing 787-9s until the middle of 2015, at which point the first of 10 smaller 787-8s will arrive. These will pack the same seats but with a total seatcount down to around 330, the airline predicts.

Scoot CEO Campbell Wilson believes the 787s will gives Scoot the flexibility to launch new routes, or add more flights to existing routes, where economics might not favour the larger and less fuel-efficient Boeing 777.

"They're operationally interchangeable so there's no efficiency impact, but the different capacities open more options with respect to network and deployment" Wilson said.

Scoot joins Jetstar as one of the low-cost carriers stumping for the Boeing 787, based on its reduced running costs via lower fuel consumption and longer time between major maintenance checks.

"The economic advantages of this later generation aircraft – including a fuel-burn saving of around 20% per seat – ensure that costs and thus airfares can be kept low so that more people can travel more often" Wilson promised.