Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary Scoot produced $734 million net profit in the April-June quarter, compared to $370.4 million last year, mainly attributing it to better operating performance of +$199 million a net interest income versus a net finance charge last year of+$144 million and a share of profits versus a share of losses of associated companies last year (+$81 million), and partially offset by this year’s higher tax expense (-$62 million).
Revenues ended at $4.479 billion, up from $3.928 billion. Expenses increased to $3.725 billion from $3.372 billion, although fuel costs were down by 21.8 percent to $1.154 billion. The group gained $101 million from fuel hedging, but this was half of last year’s hedging benefit. The operating profit was $754.5 million versus $556.4 million.
Singapore Airlines carried 5.5 million passengers at an 88.1% load factor. Capacity as in available seat kilometers (ASK) grew 24.8% to 29.4 million. Revenues per available seat kilometer (RASK) were up by 3.9% to 10.6 cents. The airlines served 74 destinations and will increase frequencies to Japan and Thailand in the upcoming winter season. Seasonal services will be added between November and January to Australia and New Zealand.
Scoot carried three million passengers, up 135.5% year on year. The load factor reached 91.7 percent. As air travel in Southeast Asia and China recovered, the airline grew capacity/ASK by 66.4 percent to 8.7 million. RASK was up 16.7% to 6.3 cents. Scoot operated to fourteen destinations in China but has since then added two more in July, with another destination to follow in August.
Singapore Cargo carried 10.6% less cargo year on year, or 214 million kilograms. Capacity was up 12.1% to 2.3 million tonnes, thanks to more belly capacity on passenger flights.
SIA Group is still not back at pre-pandemic levels and expects to need another eight months until March 2024 before it gets to 90% of 2019 capacity. The Group expects the demand to remain robust for all route regions through the summer peak, with forward passenger bookings closely tracking capacity injection across most markets over the next three months.”
SIA Group ended the quarter with an equity position of $17.2 billion, down $2.7 billion over March after it redeemed $3.4 billion in June of the Mandatory Convertible Bonds that the airline received during the Covid crisis in 2021. Cash and bank balances stood at $13.8 billion, with debt at $14.7 billion. The group still has $2.2 billion in credit lines available.
Singapore Airlines operated 137 passengers’ aircraft and seven freighters until the end of June, Scoot 55. SIA took delivery on one Airbus A350-900, two Boeing 787-10s, and a MAX 8 during the period. The group has 28 Airbus aircraft on order (three A350s, 12 A320neos, six A321neos, seven A350Fs), 62 Boeings (31 777-9s, 18 787s, 13 737-8s), and nine Embraer E190-E2s that are leased from Azorra.