Singapore Airlines sees profits rising for full fiscal year 2013-14

SINGAPORE - The Singapore Airlines Group earned an operating profit of US$ 208 million, (S$259 million) in the 2013-14 financial year, an increase of S$30 million (+13.1%) over last year.

Group revenue increased US$ 117 million (S$146 million) up by 1.0% to US$12,233 million, mainly due to higher passenger revenue including recognition of a settlement pertaining to changes in aircraft delivery slots, partially offset by a decline in cargo revenue. Passenger revenue improved over last year on the back of growth in passenger carriage, albeit at lower yields due to promotional activities amid intense competition and the weakening of major revenue generating currencies. The net reduction in Group revenue arising from exchange rate movements was US$ 81.1 million.

Group expenditure rose largely in line with revenue, by 0.8%, the good news being that higher non-fuel variable costs were partially mitigated by lower net fuel cost, as average jet fuel prices decreased 5.2% year-on-year.

Despite recording a higher operating profit, Group profit attributable to owners of the Parent fell S$20 million (-5.3%) to S$359 million. This was mainly due to exceptional items (-S$38 million loss) and weaker share of results from associated companies (down S$96 million), partially offset by recognition of tax credits. The weaker share of results from associated companies arose primarily from losses of Tiger Airways Holdings Limited, of which the Group’s share was S$118 million for the year, an increase of S$109 million. SilkAir’s operating profit was also S$62 million lower as passenger carriage growth did not keep pace with the capacity injection into regional markets.

In the financial year ended 31 March 2014, the Parent Airline Company carried 18.6 million passengers, an increase of 2.3% over last year.

Passenger carriage (in revenue passenger kilometres) rose 1.4% on the back of 1.9% growth in capacity (in available seat-kilometres). Consequently, passenger load factor decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 78.9%. SilkAir recorded a 4.0 percentage-point drop in passenger load factor.

The Parent Airline Company made adjustments to selected markets across the network during the Northern Summer season. A third daily flight to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport has been added, increasing the number of daily services to Tokyo to five. A380 aircraft will serve Mumbai and New Delhi daily from 30 May 2014, taking over from two daily flights that currently serve each city with smaller aircraft. A380 services to Shanghai will increase from five times weekly to daily, while frequency to Istanbul will increase by one flight per week to six times weekly. To cater for peak summer demand, the Parent Airline Company will serve Athens twice weekly between 9 June 2014 and 9 October 2014, while capacity in selected markets in Europe and Japan will be increased.

Regional affiliate SilkAir will launch services to three new destinations in the Northern Summer 2014 season - Kalibo in the Philippines from 27 May 2014, Mandalay in Myanmar from 10 June 2014 and Hangzhou in China from 27 June 2014. This will expand SilkAir’s network to 48 destinations across 12 countries.

Sourced: TravelDailyNews