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Bloomberg
Singapore Airlines Ltd swung back to quarterly profit for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, helped by strong cargo demand and the island city’s sustained efforts to revive international travel.
The carrier reported net income of S$85 million ($63 million) for the third quarter ended on December 31 versus a loss of S$142 million the same period a year earlier, according to an exchange filing. Sales more than doubled to S$2.32 billion.
Singapore Airlines has been steadily boosting air-passenger traffic as the government reopens borders. Vaccinated travel lanes with various countries in Europe that started last last year have been expanded as the city-state shifted away from its Covid-zero policy.
To see it through the leaner times, Singapore Airlines has raised S$21.6 billion in fresh liquidity since April 2020.
“Singapore’s vaccinated travel lane arrangements have been a game changer for the SIA Group, facilitating quarantine-free mass travel for the first time since the pandemic began,†the airline said. However it cautioned that while demand should continue to recover, “passenger traffic is likely to moderate in the fourth quarter after the end of the year-end holiday season.â€
As a result of the stronger performance, Singapore Airlines recorded an operating cash surplus of S$322 million for the first nine months, reversing an operating cash burn.
Chief Executive Officer Goh Choon Phong said in November that the company’s monthly cash burn rate had been cut to S$18 million from as much as S$400 million a year ago and the airline is approaching break-even.
Passengers carried by Singapore Airlines in the final quarter of 2021 numbered around 1.1 million, a jump of more than fivefold from 12 months earlier, after vaccinated travel lanes started with Germany and Brunei in September.
Now, people who are fully vaccinated are allowed to enter the city-state from about two dozen countries with Covid tests replacing mandatory quarantine.