Visit Singapore in Style: Wear a Piece of the Plane

The best time to visit Singapore may be any time if you wear a piece of the flagship airline. Singapore Airlines is launching a fashion line-up of stunning accessories – all made from pieces of the fleet. The concept is part of a larger campaign that seeks to “upcycle” elements of retired airline components and give them new life as useful clothing and carry items, perhaps of mementos of flights from the airline that currently flies the longest long-haul in the world (JFK-SIN). 

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For this task, Singapore Airlines partnered with Bynd Artisan, a luxury boutique that will become familiar to anyone who visits Singapore and shops in an upscale mall during their Singapore vacation. The company started some 70 years ago as a bookbinding business and now employees master craftsman to create hand hewn collectibles meant to be worn and seen. The latest round of creations are mostly leather products made of the seasoned leather of Singapore Airlines business class seats and underscoring the airline’s endeavors to keep sustainability at the forefront. 

Among the options are a key holder with a strap wristlet that reads “Pull For Life Vest.” Perhaps a sobering reminder of how precious life is and to enjoy it at all times. Also, a crossbody pouch sling with the iconic and highly recognizable Singapore Airlines’ batik motif on the inside, all for keeping travel documents and other daily essentials protected during a trip. Then there is a Watch & Valet tray stand that is perfect for depositing watches and jewelry on a dresser or a desk. Finally, on offer is a useful phone/name card stand to keep business cards handy. Item prices range from $98 (key holder) to $315 (watch and valet tray stand) and are available through partner retail shops and the online Singapore Airlines KrisShop.

Practice Of Recycling: Visit Singapore

The practice of recycling retired airline parts for consumer products is not new. Thai Airways started recycling parts of their aircraft as a way to increase revenues during the Covid-19 pandemic 2020. In 2014, Southwest Airlines launched an initiative called “Luv Seat: Repurpose with Purpose,” when the carrier found itself with an excess of 80,000 leather seat covers – enough to fill the Empire State Building — following a large-scale redesign of many of its 737 aircraft. But upon reaching out to potential partners it found no takers. 

Towards Africa

Instead, the airline looked towards Africa and found they could donate the leather goods to NGOs that would use the materials for job training. Paid apprenticeships in Kenya turned precious sheafs that would have gone to a landfill into shoes, soccer balls and other paraphernalia. Then the new plane redesigns also took on the recycling project with seats reupholstered with E-leather, a substance created from leather scraps and discards. The material turned out to be lighter, reducing the weight of each aircraft by 600 pounds, and saving on fuel.

Air France also turned trash to treasure with old uniforms recycled into car insulation. It also repurposed plastic meal trays to create cutlery, and used the cables from seat backs to make headphones. More recently, ANA has produced bags made from retired staff uniforms and Lufthansa has started selling furniture made from old airplane parts.

Singapore Airlines also remains committed to the environment by reducing waste through a number of measures and policies, including using onboard culinary ingredients sourced from vertical farms and running a robust exchange in sustainable aviation fuel credits by using a blend of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) derived from used cooking oil and waste animal fats, mixed with refined jet fuel. The experimental program launched as a one-year pilot in February toward a commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Beyond SAF: Visit Singapore

“Beyond SAF, we also use multiple levers to achieve our goals, including achieving higher operational efficiency and investing in new-generation aircraft. We will continue to collaborate with like-minded partners globally to work towards decarbonization and environmental sustainability in our operations,” said Lee Wen Fen, Senior Vice President Corporate Planning, Singapore Airlines, said in a statement. 

Last year, as the airline retired seven A380s, executives at headquarters at Changi International Airport began to look into how to break up the planes sustainably.

“We wanted to deliver a solution that allowed items that would normally have ended up in landfill to have a life long after the aircraft stopped flying,” SIA’s regional manager for public affairs and government relations, Karl Schubert, told a reporter for Financial Review. “The upcycling initiative allows us to sustainably reuse many of the materials from our retired passenger aircraft, repurposing parts and soft furnishings to create retail products and art pieces.”

Tocco Toscano and Charles & Keith are, along with Bynd Artisan, working with Singapore Airlines to flesh out ideas and designs for personal fashion, home design pieces and totes. The process of creating each piece is also a sustainability measure in itself. Each bag uses 4,000 gallons less water than if created using virgin leather and also reduces comparable CO2 emissions by 82%.