SIA Q1 Net Losses Narrow

Singapore Airlines reported a progressive increase in the passenger traffic and robust cargo performance which helped it earn a revenue of S$1.3bn ($960mn) in its first quarter ended June, 52% higher than S$861mn ($636mn) in 1Q2020. The increase in revenues was supplemented by ~17% lower expenditure at S$1.57bn ($1.16bn) vs. S$1.89bn ($1.4bn) in 1Q2020 despite an increase in fuel costs. This helped the airline trim its losses by ~64% to S$409mn ($302.3mn) from S$1.04bn ($770mn) last year. Loss per share amounted to S$0.09 compared with S$0.51 a year ago. The group’s passenger traffic rose to 28% of pre-Covid levels by the end of June and passenger load factor increased 4.6% to 14.8% as it serviced 362k passengers during the quarter. Cargo revenue grew 32.4% to S$214mn ($158mn). The airline also reported that it had raised S$6.2bn ($4.6bn) through convertible bonds during the quarter to alleviate liquidity concerns which helped increase cash and bank balances by S$5.9bn ($4.36bn) to S$13.7bn ($10.1bn). Total debt increased by S$700mn ($517.3mn) to $15.1bn ($11.2bn), increasing the debt to equity ratio to 0.9x from 0.67x. The group expects passenger traffic to rise to 33% of pre-pandemic times in the next quarter. The group, “The growing pace of mass vaccination exercises across many countries provides hope for further recovery in international air travel demand. However, the risk of new variants and fresh waves of Covid-19 infections in key markets remains a concern. The recovery trajectory will be dependent on government regulations, vaccination rates, and the risk profile of individual regulatory authorities.”