The Singapore Airlines Group (SIA Group) has posted its full-year 2022/2023 financial results, showing the highest net profits in its 76-year history.
From Pandemic Losses to Historic Profits
SIA Group, which includes airlines Singapore Airlines, its engineering arm and the low-cost carrier Scoot, has announced its financial results for the full-year 2022/2023.
The results show a net profit of 2.157 billion SGD for the full year. The previous year, 2021/2022, reported a net loss of 962 million SGD. A turnaround of 3.12 billion SGD.
Operating profit was reported at almost 2.7 billion SGD for the year compared to a loss of 610 million SGD for the previous year. Revenue had increased year-on-year by 133.4%.
The airline reported its strong results are based on the strong demand seen in the year, particularly in its reaction to the pandemic and the easing of travel restrictions.
Singapore fully re-opened its borders and removed most travel restrictions by April 2022, resulting in an effective ramp-up at short notice.
The SIA Group, it reports in the press release, retained most of its trained personnel, during the recovery phase of the pandemic, and continued to operate all its fleet with low utilisation.
This then resulted in the operator being able to ramp up operations quickly with all areas being operational and maintained.
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Passenger load factor (PLF) for the group increased by over 55 percentage points to 85.4%. Another historic high. Singapore Airlines was almost 86% and subsidiary airline Scoot was almost 84% PLF. The successful ramp-up enabled the company to capture the surge in travel demand throughout the year.
Its passenger capacity reached 79% of pre-Covid levels in March 2023. Group airlines reportedly carried 26.5 million passengers, a 600% increased from the previous year.
In other fortunate news, despite softer demand and a weaker global market, the Group’s cargo revenue also achieved results higher than pre-Covid levels.
Looking to 2023/2024
As the airline industry continues to tackle an uncertain geopolitical and economic environment of high inflation, increased fuel costs and closure of key areas of airspace, the demand for global passenger travel continues to be strong.
SIA is seeing what it describes as a “robust” near-term forward passenger sales across all classes of travel. The Q1 of 2023/24 has seen strong bookings for East Asia in destinations such as China, Japan and South Korea as these countries have removed travel restrictions since last year.
As demand and competition continue to grow, with added financial pressures across the industry, the airline stated it will continue monitoring the situation and adjust capacity accordingly. Striving for agility and being “nimble in its response.”
The Group is continuing to invest in its premium branding through the development of its cabins, lounges and new aircraft.
The airline retrofitted cabins in its Airbus A380 and Boeing 737-8 fleets. It also redeveloped its airport lounges, particularly its flagship lounges at Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3.
The Group has also an order with Airbus to purchase the new A350F freighters to renew its cargo product.
With the positive results, the Group reaffirmed its “robust financial position” to the markets and its continued commitment to offer best-in-class products and services, agility and resilience,
The SIA Group’s press releases on the financial results signed off with a message of thanks to its customers, shareholders, partners and staff for their continued support which, it said, “it does not take for granted.”
