The Covid-19 pandemic, which began to spread globally in February 2020, resulted in unprecedented restrictions on international air travel at the start of the financial year. Successive waves of Covid-19 infections and more virulent strains have subsequently emerged over the course of the 12 months. As a result, the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group’s passenger traffic shrank 97.9% in the financial year ended March 31, 2021 from a year before. Group revenue fell by SG$12,160 million (-76.1%) year-on-year to SG$3,816 million due to the plunge in passenger-flown revenue across Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, and Scoot – the three passenger airlines within the Group.
This was partially offset by higher cargo-flown revenue, which rose by SG$758 million (+38.8%) year-on-year to SG$2,709 million. Improvements in freighter utilization, deployment of passenger aircraft for cargo-only flights, and removing seats from passenger cabins to create additional volume for cargo partially mitigated the loss of passenger aircraft belly-hold capacity during the pandemic. Strong air cargo demand, especially in key segments such as e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, and electronics, provided strong support for both cargo load factors and yields amid tight industry cargo capacity.
The Group swung into an operating loss of SG$2,513 million in FY2020/21, a reversal of SG$2,572 million from the SG$59 million operating profit recorded last year. For the financial year ended March 31, 2021, the Group reported a net loss of SG$4,271 million, a deterioration of SG$4,059 million against last year. This was driven by both the weaker operating performance and non-cash impairment charges, partially offset by a SG$623 million increase in tax credit due to the higher net loss recorded by the Group. (US$1.00 = SG$1.33 at time of publication.)
