SIA sees first quarterly profit of $85m since pandemic onset

Thanks to an increased demand for air travel in December 2021. 

Singapore Airlines (SIA) posted its first quarterly profit since the beginning of the pandemic at $85m in the third quarter of the financial year 2021.

Contributing to this performance were the increased air travel, demand in the cargo market, and Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) arrangements.

Read more: Singapore Airlines adds 12 cities to its VTL flight network

During the quarter, 1.1 million passengers were carried, more than five times the amount from a year before. Passenger capacity also jumped by 183% year-on-year due to the increased flights from the VTLs. Although this passenger capacity only reached 45% of pre-COVID levels. 

Following the improvements in passenger and cargo revenue, the group revenue was up by 117.1% to $2.32m. Increases in passenger revenue and cargo revenue were seen at $833m and $1.35b, respectively. Cargo revenue, in particular, overcame the $1b mark for the first time, and also set a new quarterly record at the same time. 

Group expenditure for the group also went up by 60.2% to $2.24b. Included in this were increases in net fuel costs and non-fuel expenditure at bumps of 131% and 26%, respectively. This was mainly due to higher fuel prices and an increase in volume uplifted.

Overall, the group saw an operating profit of $76m for the period, an improvement over the $331m loss from last year.