Singapore Airlines captain S L Leong explaining the airline's Singapore-New York flight. / Grant Bradley / Airbus
Recycled plane parts from retired Singapore Airlines planes are being used in products including clothes, bags and art that are now starting to hit the market.
The airline has scrapped aircraft during the pandemic, including several of its A380s, but parts and material are getting a new life under TheUpcycling Project, an initiative run with education institutions and retailers.
Fifteen Singapore-based retail brands will be among the first in the world to sell a wide range of unique products made from upcycled aircraft parts and materials.
Singapore Airline customers and aviation enthusiasts can buy the unique products. These include furniture made from the airline's business class seats, cabin windows, and overhead compartments, as well as fashion apparel and accessories made from life vests, linen sourced from aircraft cushion covers, bed sheets, blankets, and tableware redesigned from decommissioned service ware.
In 2020, Qantas sold fully stocked drinks carts from its Boeing 747s which were taken out of service earlier than planned.
In Singapore, fashion label Tocco Toscano began sales of pouches, wallets, and wristlet clutches made from life vests.
Several Singapore Airlines A380s have been dismantled during the past few years. Photo / Supplied
Supermama will begin workshops at its store at the National Museum of Singapore for customers to customise their own tableware, using Singapore Airlines and aviation-inspired decals.
Sales of their upcycled retail collection of tableware will start in January along with ANS.EIN, ipse ipsa ipsum and Photo Phactory. Other brands including Beyond The Vines, Blithe & Merry, Bynd Artisan, Charles & Keith, Commune, [in]trigue, Protesta, Reckless Ericka, Roger&Sons, and Ying The Label will progressively launch their product lines in the months after.
The collaboration between the retail brands and the airline is supported by the Singapore Tourism Board, and aims to encourage innovative cross-sector partnerships and add vibrancy to the retail scene.
Discussions are continuing with more Singapore-based and international brands, which are keen to work with airline on The Upcycling Project.
Singapore Airlines is collaborating with retailers and educational institutions to recycle plane parts. Photo / Supplied
In the first quarter of 2022, the airline will also launch a Designed by Singapore Airlines collection that features an exclusive SIA range of unique upcycled products. This includes a collection of aviation tags made from retired aircraft fuselage, and bags made from life vests.
The airline is also working with SG Enable, a Singapore-based agency dedicated to supporting people with disabilities. Under this initiative, SPD and Singapore Fashion Runway have created lifestyle products made from life vests and seat fabric.
The airline is donating aircraft parts and materials to educational institutions to be used as learning materials for their art or design courses.
Singapore Airlines customer experience senior vice president Yeoh Phee Teik said the collaboration with Singapore-based retail brands has resulted in the creation of a wide range of innovative and imaginative products, almost entirely by using upcycled aircraft parts and materials.
Plane parts are being re-purposed. Photo / Supplied
With more aircraft - particularly less-efficient four-engine or older twin-engine planes meeting a premature end as a result of the pandemic - there is renewed interest in recycling.
About 85 per cent to 90 per cent of the weight content of retired aircraft is re-used or recycled. A paper for the International Civil Aviation Organisation found between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of the weight of all dismantled aircraft is returned to the parts distribution pipeline.
Most of the remaining unserviceable material is recycled and returned to the supply chain as raw materials, and in some cases, aircraft parts, or even entire aircraft have been repurposed for unconventional uses, ranging from furniture and art work, to hotels.
