SINGAPORE, 24 February 2023: Singapore Airlines will introduce supplementary flights to Barcelona, Frankfurt, and Rome during the 2023 summer timetable, the airline reports in the group’s financial performance report for the nine months ending December 2022.
Released earlier this week, the report confirms services to Busan will resume in August 2023. SIA will suspend services in October to Vancouver, the only route the airline operates to Canada, as the group adjusts its capacity in response to demand.
SIA reports capacity is projected to reach an average of around 77% of pre-Covid-19 levels in the fourth quarter of FY2022/23 (January to March 2023).
SIA is expected to take delivery of one Airbus A350-900 and one Boeing 787-10 in the fourth quarter, with the aircraft joining the operating fleet in the next financial year, 2023/2024, which commences 1 April 2023.
As of 31 December 2022, SIA’s operating fleet comprised 133 passenger aircraft and seven freighters with an average age of six years and six months.
Financial highlights
The SIA Grouo posted record quarterly and nine-month profits driven by strong travel demand post-Covid according to the group’s financial report for Q3 and the nine months of the fiscal year 2022/2024.
Performance highlights identified record passenger load factors for the SIA Group and strong momentum in forward passenger sales for the fourth quarter, January to March 2023.
The group’s financial performance report covering the nine months ending December 2022 showed robust demand for air travel continued into the third quarter of FY2022/23 (October to December), building on the momentum that began after Singapore relaxed its border restrictions in April 2022.
The group’s passenger capacity reached 80% of pre-Covid-19 levels in December 2022, higher than the average of 51%2 for the Asia-Pacific region.
SIA and Scoot carried 7.4 million passengers in the third quarter, up 17% from the second quarter. The group carried 18.8 million passengers during the nine months that ended 31 December 2022, up nine-fold from a year before. Passenger load factors for the group improved 0.8 percentage points to 87.4%, the highest for any quarter, on the back of record load factors for both SIA (87.3%) and Scoot (87.8%).
Q3 profit
Group revenue for the three months to 31 December rose SGD358 million (+8.0%) quarter-on-quarter to SGD4,846 million, a record quarterly revenue for the group. Passenger-flown revenue increased by SGD463 million (+14.0%) to SGD3,767 million as traffic grew 12.2% for the quarter, outpacing the 11.1% expansion in capacity.
Revenue per available seat-kilometre (RASK) was 10.6 cents, the highest quarterly RASK in the group’s history.
The group posted an operating profit of SGD755 million for the third quarter, up SGD77 million (+11.4%) from the previous quarter.
The operating profit for SIA was SGD48 million (-7.0%), lower quarter-on-quarter at SGD636 million.
Scoot achieved a record quarterly operating profit of SGD135 million, up SGD123 million or more than 11-fold from the previous quarter.
Nine months profit
Revenues rose SGD8,120 million (+157.9%) year-on-year to SGD13,263 million, the highest nine-month revenue for the SIA Group.
Passenger-flown revenue increased SGD8,160 million (+514.5%) as traffic grew seven-fold, outpacing the 108.9% expansion in capacity. RASK reached 10.1 cents (+197.1%), a record nine-month figure for the group.
The group recorded an operating profit of SGD1,989 million for the nine months to December 2022 versus the SGD543 million loss a year before (+SGD2,532 million).
Net profits rose to a record SGD1,555 million, reversing the SGD752 million loss in the previous year (+SGD2,307 million).
Preparing for the future
SIA and Tata Sons (Tata) reached an agreement in November 2022 to merge Air India and Vistara, with SIA investing a further SGD360 million in Air India as part of the transaction. When completed, it will reinforce SIA’s partnership with Tata and give it a 25.1% stake in the enlarged Air India group. The merged entity will be four to five times larger in scale compared to Vistara, with a strong presence in all key airline segments in India. The proposed merger will bolster SIA’s presence in India, strengthen its multi-hub strategy, and allow it to continue participating directly in this large and fast-growing aviation market.
From now on, deeper collaboration with like-minded airlines is an integral part of the SIA Group’s partnerships strategy. Last November, Virgin Australia resumed selling codeshare flights to 42 destinations in 23 countries and territories across SIA’s network, enabling more seamless travel for customers between Australia, Asia, Africa, and Europe.
In December 2022, Thai Airways International (THAI) and SIA signed a Memorandum of Understanding to deepen their commercial collaboration.
In the initial phase, THAI and SIA will codeshare on their respective flights between Singapore and Bangkok. THAI will also put its code on SIA’s flights to destinations in South Africa and the Americas in 2023, subject to regulatory approval.
Earlier this month, Vietnam Airlines and SIA signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen the commercial cooperation between the two airlines, including exploring codeshare arrangements between Singapore and Vietnam and potentially other destinations in the SIA network.
Q4 outlook
The demand for air travel is expected to be robust in the fourth quarter, supported by the recovery in East Asia as travel restrictions ease across China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan. Forward sales remain strong across all markets for both leisure and business travel, as well as all cabin classes.
