SIA’s net profit down 5.3% to $143m in Q3

On back of lower passenger carriage.

Excluding a massive exceptional gain from its acquisition of low-cost carrier Tigerair, Singapore Airlines reported a 5.3% year-on-year decline in operating profit to $143m for the third quarter.

Operating profit for the parent airline company declined by $43m year-on-year. SIA’s $35m growth in revenue was more than offset by a $78m increase in operating costs, which mainly arose from an exchange loss against an exchange gain last year, and higher aircraft standing charges.

The parent airline company’s passenger carriage in revenue passenger kilometres declined 1.9%, against a 0.5% drop in capacity in available seat-kilometres during the third quarter. As a result, passenger load factor fell 1.1 percentage points to 78.3%.

Including a $56m exceptional gain from the acquisition of Tigearair, the national carrier recorded a net profit of $203m in the October-December 2014 quarter, $153m higher year-on-year