The weather in Singapore can be quite tough. "The relative air humidity is hard to bear for Europeans", states a popular travel weather website. And what applies to tourists from Europe also kind of applies to airplanes - at least when they are parked for a longer period of time. High humidity isn't good for them. That gets even worse when the rainy season begins in November.
That's why the Singapore Airlines subsidiary Silk Air has a problem: since March it has had to park its six Boeing 737 Max, just like all other operators of the aircraft type. The airline wants and needs to park these aircraft at a much drier location in the future: In the Northern Territory in Australia there are occasionally strong thunderstorms in summer, but in general it is very hot and dry. The company Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage (Apas) offers space for the planes at the airport of the city of Alice Springs.
Flights without passengers and MCAS
According to the Financial Times, Silk Air and Apas agreed some time ago on the storage of the Boeing 737 Max. On Tuesday (24 September), the specialist portal Flightglobal reported that the Australian aviation authority Casa had now granted the necessary permission for the transfer flights.
Silk Air according to the reports has six months to bring its aircraft to Alice Springs. These must be transfer flights without passengers. In addition, the flight must take place without the MCAS flight control system, which is considered one of the reasons for the 737-Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia.
Other airlines interested
Apas Director Tom Vincent did not want to comment on the deal with Silk Air to Flight Global. However, he said they were in talks with a number of airlines about the possible storage of Boeing 737 Max.
