SIN-HKG and back on SQ 744 (Y)

[wsssaero]

Hi all

After reading all your wonderful TRs, now I have one too. Since this is my first, I hope you'll be a little forgiving if I make any mistakes.

Sector: SIN-HKG
Flight: SQ 2
Dep Time: 1750 (actual 1805), Terminal 3 Gate A4
Arr Time: 2135 (actual 2117), Terminal 1 Gate 26
Aircraft: Boeing 747-412 9V-SPG
Seat: 53K

Terminal 3

Special Christmas theme at T3

My ride to HKG. I had flew this plane one before to SYD just last year, and now meet her again. I was actually surprised that she would operate SQ2, having just landed from MEL about 2hrs ago.


SPI next door at A3

View from the window, the cargo door is not closed yet

As we pushback, SQ everywhere.

Jet Airways being towed to T3 for the night departure to India

View from my seat while the safety video is shown

View just after takeoff, rainy Singapore skies

Sunny as we fly over West Malaysia

[wsssaero]

Meal service

Meal service commenced quickly after takeoff. SIA really gives you a lot of food as compared to other airlines. I chose the fish.

Menu:
dinner SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG

appetiser
Pasta and ham salad

main course
Panfried fish in lemon butter sauce with vegetables and potatoes
or
Braised chicken with ginger and onion served with fragrant rice

cheese
Cheese and crackers

dessert
Ice cream

from the bakery
Roll and butter

hot beverages
Coffee - Tea
Chinese tea

[wsssaero]

Cabin shots

After the trays were cleared, I took a walk around the cabin and got a few shots.
Economy class cabin

Aircraft info plate next to the last door on the left.

On the way back to my seat, I passed a senior male FA who offered me the chance to take photos of the main Y galley.


View from my seat

[wsssaero]

After the flight

View out of the window.

On the way out, I stopped to snap a pic of the Business Class cabin

Thanks to the kind FA (forgot her kebaya colour though) who allowed me to shoot the First Class cabin here:

In Hong Kong, the customs is very thorough and hence very slow. So my baggage was already waiting by the time I cleared. Then it was just a breeze out to the public area.
Arrival hall. The level on top is the departure hall with some Christmas deco.

[wsssaero]

Hong Kong

Some of my favourite shots in Hong Kong:
The Star Ferry

Signboards row after row on the streets competing for space

The skyline of Hong Kong Island

Main Street in Disneyland by night

View from the peak

Ocean Park and the outlying islands

[wsssaero]

HKG-SIN

Now for the return journey.
Sector: HKG-SIN
Flight: SQ 865
Dep Time: 1830 (actual 1842), Terminal 1 Gate 23
Arr Time: 2220 (actual 2154), Terminal 3 Gate A4
Aircraft: Boeing 747-412 9V-SPN
Seat: 38A

Hong Kong Airport departure hall


I arrived quite early and the check in counters were all available so checkin was quick.

Immigration took me almost half an hour to clear, again very thorough checks for everyone.
Hong Kong Airport: LH, AC, NZ

Took some pictures around the airport

There is the Cathay AWC 77W parked at the far end of the terminal. However, by the time I walked over to get a pic it had left


By this time my ride home is here...9V-SPN

[wsssaero]

SQ865

My gate, 23. There are no holdrooms here, only a door to the airbridge.

6pm in Hong Kong and SPN sits in the failing light.

Very white airbridge

View from my seat 38A.

While this seat is just in front of the lavs, I find it a rather good seat as its like a 'mini-cabin' all to myself, and no worries about reclining into the person behind. This could be partly due to the short duration of the flight meaning that less people use the lav.

The cabin

Dinner onboard, followed by ice cream.

dinner HONG KONG TO SINGAPORE

international selection

appetiser
Smoked salmon with potato salad

main course
Panfried chicken in mustard sauce with stewed vegetables and potatoes

cheese
Cheese and crackers

dessert
Ice cream

from the bakery
Roll and butter

hot beverages
Coffee-Tea



While the food is good overall, I did find the chicken a little tough.
Christmas deco, even though I flew in November. The December Silverkris, Krisworld and Krisshop mags were all loaded already.

[wsssaero]

Arrival

Arrived in Changi early and docked at T3.
J class cabin shot on the way out.

SPN home in the dark

T3


Arrival hall with the much advertised green wall.

[StarG]

Thanks for sharing, wsssaero.

[SQTalker]

Aircraft info plate next to the last door on the left.

Is that mean now Standard Chartered Bank owns 9V-SPG...?

[wsssaero]

I believe all of SQ's 744s have been on sell-and-leaseback deals since some time ago. So technically SQ does not own any 744s now.

[jhm]

Thanks for the TR, wsssaero.

I believe all of SQ's 744s have been on sell-and-leaseback deals since some time ago. So technically SQ does not own any 744s now.

You have to draw a distinction between:

(i) A "sale and leaseback" in the sense which I think you're talking about, i.e. the seller sells the aircraft/ship to the buyer but the buyer then leases (or - to use the common English term - hires) it back temporarily.

(ii) A "sale and leaseback" in the financing sense which I think is actually the case here. It's a structure which may have been put in place when the aircraft was first acquired by SQ. For eaxmple, rather than SQ simply borrowing money to buy the aircraft, somebody else (the "lessor") acquires the aircraft and leases/hires the aircraft to SQ. The lessor gets a benefit (usually tax related) and that benefit is reflected in lower hire being paid by SQ. In other words, SQ pay less in hire than what they would have paid if they had gone out and borrowed the money themselves to buy the plane.

From the plate in the picture, you can see that the plane is owned by Tarbenian Leasing Limited (a Cayman Islands company) which leases it to Trakehner Leasing Limited; and Trakehner Leasing Limited sub-leases it to SQ. The lease and sub-lease structure was probably dictated by some tax or other requirement.

Standard Chartered provided the money to enable Tarbenian Leasing Limited to buy the aircraft (or provided some other form of support) for the transaction; and so it has a mortgage on the plane as security (hence the bank is shown as the "mortgagee", i.e. the holder of the mortgage).

It's not uncommon for inidividual expensive assets (e.g. aircraft, cruise ships, liquefied natural gas carriers etc) or a large collection of cheap assets (e.g. shipping containers) to be financed by some form of structured financing. Once you get to a certain point, the fairly large financing costs required to set it up (e.g. banks' fees, arrangers, lawyers and other advisers' fees; etc) are outweighed by the benefits from the transaction.

[kapitan]

Thanks for the TR, wsssaero.



You have to draw a distinction between:

(i) A "sale and leaseback" in the sense which I think you're talking about, i.e. the seller sells the aircraft/ship to the buyer but the buyer then leases (or - to use the common English term - hires) it back temporarily.

(ii) A "sale and leaseback" in the financing sense which I think is actually the case here. It's a structure which may have been put in place when the aircraft was first acquired by SQ. For eaxmple, rather than SQ simply borrowing money to buy the aircraft, somebody else (the "lessor") acquires the aircraft and leases/hires the aircraft to SQ. The lessor gets a benefit (usually tax related) and that benefit is reflected in lower hire being paid by SQ. In other words, SQ pay less in hire than what they would have paid if they had gone out and borrowed the money themselves to buy the plane.

From the plate in the picture, you can see that the plane is owned by Tarbenian Leasing Limited (a Cayman Islands company) which leases it to Trakehner Leasing Limited; and Trakehner Leasing Limited sub-leases it to SQ. The lease and sub-lease structure was probably dictated by some tax or other requirement.

Standard Chartered provided the money to enable Tarbenian Leasing Limited to buy the aircraft (or provided some other form of support) for the transaction; and so it has a mortgage on the plane as security (hence the bank is shown as the "mortgagee", i.e. the holder of the mortgage).

It's not uncommon for inidividual expensive assets (e.g. aircraft, cruise ships, liquefied natural gas carriers etc) or a large collection of cheap assets (e.g. shipping containers) to be financed by some form of structured financing. Once you get to a certain point, the fairly large financing costs required to set it up (e.g. banks' fees, arrangers, lawyers and other advisers' fees; etc) are outweighed by the benefits from the transaction.

At the end of the day, if we trace backwards and go down to the roots, you probably will find that the money came from the right pocket and then went back into the left pocket.... ahhhh.... the sleazy world of assets financing!!!

[SQflyergirl]

Thanks for the TR, wsssaero.



You have to draw a distinction between:

(i) A "sale and leaseback" in the sense which I think you're talking about, i.e. the seller sells the aircraft/ship to the buyer but the buyer then leases (or - to use the common English term - hires) it back temporarily.

(ii) A "sale and leaseback" in the financing sense which I think is actually the case here. It's a structure which may have been put in place when the aircraft was first acquired by SQ. For eaxmple, rather than SQ simply borrowing money to buy the aircraft, somebody else (the "lessor") acquires the aircraft and leases/hires the aircraft to SQ. The lessor gets a benefit (usually tax related) and that benefit is reflected in lower hire being paid by SQ. In other words, SQ pay less in hire than what they would have paid if they had gone out and borrowed the money themselves to buy the plane.

From the plate in the picture, you can see that the plane is owned by Tarbenian Leasing Limited (a Cayman Islands company) which leases it to Trakehner Leasing Limited; and Trakehner Leasing Limited sub-leases it to SQ. The lease and sub-lease structure was probably dictated by some tax or other requirement.

Standard Chartered provided the money to enable Tarbenian Leasing Limited to buy the aircraft (or provided some other form of support) for the transaction; and so it has a mortgage on the plane as security (hence the bank is shown as the "mortgagee", i.e. the holder of the mortgage).

It's not uncommon for inidividual expensive assets (e.g. aircraft, cruise ships, liquefied natural gas carriers etc) or a large collection of cheap assets (e.g. shipping containers) to be financed by some form of structured financing. Once you get to a certain point, the fairly large financing costs required to set it up (e.g. banks' fees, arrangers, lawyers and other advisers' fees; etc) are outweighed by the benefits from the transaction.

My goodness. Why can't one just waltz up to the seattle showroom and say "gimme one in white with a blue stripe with gold accents. and put 12 brown leather seats in the front, 50 purple seats behind it and upstairs, and 313 seats at the back. Here's the cheque!"

[9V-SIA]

My goodness. Why can't one just waltz up to the seattle showroom and say "gimme one in white with a blue stripe with gold accents. and put 12 brown leather seats in the front, 50 purple seats behind it and upstairs, and 313 seats at the back. Here's the cheque!"

Eh! Can you give bankers and lawyers a break?

Their rice bowl to make our lives complicated