Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE
Singapore Airlines (SIA)has reported a 33.4%surge in group operating profits in the year ended 31 March and a 12.6% increase in net profit.
The carrier attributes the increase to improving market conditions and exceptional gains, leading to a group operating profit of S$1.14 billion ($660 million),compared with S$854.4 million the previous year, and a profit attributable to shareholders of S$1.16 billion, which compares with a S$1.03 billion profit the previous year.
Group revenue rose 14%, to S$8.89 billion compared with the previous year's S$7.79 billion .
Operating profit for the airline alone leapt 48.9%to S$817 million on a 16% increase in revenue to S$8.2 billion. Airline expenditure rose 13.2% to S$7.38 billion - mostly due to a 26.9% rise in fuel costs - while pre-tax profit soared 86% to S$1.64 billion.
The pre-tax profit includes S$86 million from sale and leaseback deals on three Boeing 747-400s, the trade-in of one Airbus A310-300 to Rolls-Royce and the sale of spares and engines.
It also includes a special dividend of S$371 million from SIA subsidiaries Singapore Air Terminal Services and SIA Engineering (SIAEC) arising from capital restructuring leading up to their initial public offerings on 5 May.
In addition, the company includes in its pre-tax profit S$169 million received from the disposal of 5 million shares in Delta AirLines, 320,000 shares in Swissair, and one third of its holding in data network services company Equant.
According to SIA, profit after tax for its subsidiaries rose 60.6% to S$472 million, including the deferred recognition of gains from the sale of SIAEC's stake in Eagle Services Asia in June 1998, and income from the sale of one SilkAir Boeing 737-300.
The airline's capacity grew 8.1% during the year while traffic increased 11.8% to 12 billion tonne-kilometres, with both passenger and freight load factors showing a 2.4% rise, to 74.9% and 68.8% respectively.
Overall yields rose 3.6% to S$0.66 per load tonne-kilometre, with passenger and cargo yields showed respective increases of 5.4% and 3.4%.
Source: Flight International
