Singapore Airlines Group narrows first quarter loss

The Singapore Airlines Group has reported a S$409 million net loss for the first quarter of the 2021 financial year. Despite the consecutive quarterly loss, this figure actually represents a 63.6% decrease in comparison to its first-quarter loss in 2020, when the flag carrier reported a first-quarter loss of S$1.12 billion.

The Singapore Airlines Group’s (SIA) total revenue also increased by 52 per cent from S$851 million in 2020 to around S$1.3 billion. Singapore Airlines added that its cargo revenue, which increased by around S$214 million (32 per cent) played a key role in contributing towards the airline group’s total revenue.

The Singapore Airlines Group total expenditure also fell by 16.9% to around S$1.5 billion, while net fuel cost increased by 132.3% from S$205 million to S$360 million mainly due to the rising fuel costs.

In terms of the SIA Group’s fleet, the group’s main carrier, Singapore Airlines received three new Airbus A350 aircraft during the first quarter, however, two Airbus A330s were removed from the fleet and will be returned to their respective lessors. Currently, Singapore Airlines has a total of 115 passenger aircraft consisting of 23 Boeing 777-300ERs, 12 Airbus A380s, 55 A350s, 15 Boeing 787-10s, one Airbus A330 and nine 737-800NGs.

Meanwhile, the group’s low-cost carrier, Scoot has a total of 49 aircraft in its fleet, comprised of 10 Boeing 787-8s and 10 787-9s, 21 Airbus 321ceos, five A320neos and three A321neos. Scoot hopes that these two brand new A321neos, which were delivered in May 2021, will offer “better operating economics” and give the airline “additional flexibility to add capacity as demand returns.”

Singapore Airlines stated that based on its current published scheduled “the group expects passenger capacity to be around 33% of pre-COVID-19 levels in the second quarter of FY2021/22.” The SIA Group added that it hopes to operate to around 50 per cent of its pre-Covid passenger network by the end of September 2021.

In a company statement, the Singapore Airlines Group said “The recovery trajectory will be dependent on government regulations, vaccination rates, and the risk profile of individual regulatory authorities. The SIA Group strongly supports all efforts to facilitate the safe resumption of international passenger travel.”

The Singapore Airlines Group remains confident that the growing pace of the vaccine rollout across many countries will provide some hope about the prospects of a further recovery in international air travel demand. However, the SIA Group reiterated that the risk of new variants and fresh waves of COVID-19 infections in key markets “remains a concern.”

The SIA Group stated that it will remain nimble and flexible during this time, and will continue to pursue initiatives that reinforce the group’s “long-standing strategy of working towards decarbonisation and environmental sustainability.” As the airline group enters its second financial quarter, Singapore Airlines plans to reinstate a number of international routes to Cape Town (via Johannesburg), Manchester and Rome (vie Copenhagen), which are all scheduled to commence from July.

Source: https://aeronewsx.com/singapore-airlines-narrows-first-quarter-loss/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=singapore-airlines-narrows-first-quarter-loss