Singapore Airlines subsidiary SilkAir (SLK, Singapore Changi) is to increase its flights to Cairns, Australia from 4x to 5x weekly and will deploy its new B737-8 aircraft on the route. SilkAir CEO Foo Chai Wai told CAPA that the MAX 8s will also replace B737-800s on routes from Singapore to Hyderabad International and Bangalore International.

SilkAir has operated the Singapore – Cairns route since May 2015, originally offered with a stop in Darwin. The direct flight is the longest in SilkAir's route network at seven hours. Cairns and Darwin are SilkAir's only non-Asian destinations.

The carrier has thirty-seven B737 MAX 8s on order from Boeing as it moves to an all-Boeing fleet. Its fleet currently comprises three A319-100s, ten A320-200s and seventeen B737-800s and it flies to fifty-five cities in seventeen countries.