SINGAPORE – Come Jan 16, a VIP will be given special first-class treatment for his first trip abroad.

He will be “chauffeured” to the airport, where he will enter the plane via his own entrance, and will have the whole flight to himself, attended to by a crew of three on board.

The VIP – or very important panda, as Singapore Airlines (SIA) dubs him – is none other than Singapore-born giant panda cub Le Le, who will be taking his maiden flight from Singapore to Chengdu. He will leave Changi Airport at 7.15pm on Jan 16 for Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport.

Under the terms of Chinese panda loan agreements, cubs born on foreign soil are generally returned to China when they turn two.

Le Le made his final appearance at the Pavilion Capital Giant Panda Forest at River Wonders on Dec 13, 2023, and has been in quarantine in his “suite” – or den – since Dec 14.

“In preparation for his flight, he has undergone a thorough health check and (has been) assessed to be in the pink of health,” said SIA on Jan 15.

Le Le will be transported from Mandai – where River Wonders is – to Changi Airport in a customised crate on a temperature-controlled truck.

The crate, which measures 1.7m long, 1.1m wide and 1.3m high, took two weeks to build and will be Le Le’s “seat” on his 4½-hour flight on board a Boeing 747-400F freighter. The crate also comes with a removable plywood board at each end to facilitate mealtimes and checks when needed.

To ensure that he moves into the crate voluntarily and gets used to it, panda keepers from Mandai Wildlife Group have been conditioning Le Le to enter the metal container with food rewards.

A long wait at the immigration counter and queues to board the plane? Le Le will have none of those.

At the airport, his crate will be loaded and strapped onto a pallet, which will then be loaded onto the main deck of the plane through the nose door. Talk about priority boarding.

The pallet will then be secured to the floor of the main deck to minimise movement during the flight.

While Le Le may not have SIA cabin crew attending to him, he will be attended to by Mandai Wildlife Group’s assistant curator, Ms Trisha Tay, and a veterinarian, as well as a keeper from China.

They will be seated in the upper deck, and can easily check on Le Le to ensure that he is comfortable and calm during the flight.

Find it too warm or too cold sometimes when you are flying? Not for the VIP.

The ambient cabin temperature will be maintained between 12 deg C and 16 deg C, similar to the temperature of Le Le’s habitat at River Wonders.

And of course, like any VIP, Le Le’s in-flight meal will be a specially curated one. The panda cub will have a selection of up to 50kg of his favourites, such as bamboo, bamboo shoots, apples, carrots and pellets.

Mr Gajandran Sokayan, assistant manager of dangerous goods and special cargo at SIA, said the team spent the last five months “poring through every little detail to prepare for this special flight”.

“This includes little touches such as pre-cooling the aircraft prior to Le Le’s arrival, as well as the careful loading and strapping of his crate to the pallet and onto the main deck,” said Mr Gajandran, who has been with SIA Cargo for 51 years and facilitated the transportation of Jia Jia and Kai Kai from China in 2012.

SIA said the flight to Chengdu will be operated by one captain and one first officer, and another two pilots will be on board to operate the return flight to Singapore.

Captain Nithaar Zain, the chief pilot, said pilots will take a gentler angle when taking off and landing to ensure maximum comfort for Le Le – his first giant panda passenger. He has flown the Boeing 747-400F freighter for 16 years and transported live animals like horses, cows and sheep.

Captain Nithaar said that while he will ensure that the loading and unloading of the panda cub goes smoothly, the most challenging part of the flight is to avoid turbulence.

He said he will check all weather reports and speak with air traffic controllers for information on turbulence.

Before the flight, the pilots will meet the keepers and veterinarian to review all procedures to ensure a comfortable flight experience, said SIA.

The red carpet treatment does not end there, though.

Two SIA loadmasters will also travel to Chengdu ahead of Le Le’s arrival to welcome him and support his on-ground handling. One of them facilitated the operations when Kai Kai and Jia Jia arrived in Singapore in 2012.

Loadmasters are responsible for ensuring that all cargo is safely loaded on to the aircraft and unloaded after landing.

They will work with the ground handlers in Chengdu to ensure that Le Le’s pallet is safely unloaded from the freighter, and his crate is transferred to his next mode of transport.

Upon his arrival in Chengdu at about 11.30pm, Le Le will be transported to a quarantine facility in Huaying, Guang’an City, in Sichuan province.

In a video posted by SIA on social media, when asked about his wish for Le Le, Captain Nithaar said: “I hope you like your new home, and make lots of new friends.”