When incorporated in 2001, all nine Singapore Airlines' Boeing 747 freighters were transferred to the new cargo start-up at market value, and henceforth, all new freighter purchases were to be made from the new company's books. All cargo-hold spaces in the Singapore Airlines' passenger planes are also managed by the new company.
SIA Cargo operates 10 Boeing 747-400Fs and 2 Boeing 747-400BCFs. The Boeing 747-400 freighters have a maximum payload of 112 tonnes and a maximum range of 8,230 km. They feature typical capabilities such as front loading from the nose, temperature control and pressure-regulation systems. Despite the increase in payload offered by the Boeing 747-8 Freighter, which can carry up to 140 tonnes of cargo, SIA Cargo has announced that there are no plans to acquire them. According to the then-CEO Chew Choon Seng of Singapore Airlines, “We (Singapore Airlines) are not convinced about the additional expenditure that would be needed to renew the freighter fleet with 747-8 freighters, when the tradeoffs in terms of operating efficiency is rather marginal, in our view. So we do not need that."
Due to the financial crisis in the late 2000s, there was a drop in global demand for freight. SIA Cargo parked a freighter at Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California from January 2009 until January 2010 to reduce capacity.
In addition, the company manages the cargo holds of Singapore Airlines' and Scoot's passengers aircraft. These offer a cargo capacity of 9-23 tonnes per plane depending on aircraft type.