SIA Lost S$1.12 Billion During Circuit Breaker Period as Passenger Carriage Fell by 99.5%

By
Victor Fong
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For anyone who wasn’t in a coma, this shouldn’t come as a surprise at all.

But don’t feel too bad on reading yet another regular news in 2020. As they say:

“I used to think that 2020 was a tragedy, but now I realise that it’s a comedy.”

Image: Imgflip

So let’s just look at what this S$1.12 billion actually is eh?

SIA Group Net Loss Of S$1.12 Billion In First Financial Quarter

When we say SIA, we mean the Singapore Airlines Group, so this includes SilkAir and Scoot.

In the first financial quarter, meaning from April 2020 to 30 June 2020, passenger carriage crashed by 99.4% for SIA (without SilkAir and Scoot), 99.8% for SilkAir, and 99.9% for Scoot when compared to the previous year’s quarter.

Revenue plunged 79.3%, going from S$3.25 billion to $851 million year-on-year, and expenditure fell by 51.6% to S$1.89 billion.

Considering that was the period that travel restrictions were most heavily imposed because of COVID-19, this is all within expectations. In fact, SIA had previously got their first-ever full-year net loss in their 48-year history back in May 2020.

And if you’re worried about the future…

Forecasts Expect Two To Four Years To Return To Pre-Pandemic Levels

Yep. SIA says that “Industry forecasts currently expect that it will take between two and four years for passenger traffic numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels.”

The projections are brought to you by the experts at the International Air Transport Association and the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

By the end of the next quarter, SIA group’s passenger capacity is forecasted to be about 7% in comparison to pre-COVID-19 levels. At the end of this financial year, the capacity is expected to be less than half of pre-COVID-19 levels.

Which is a heck of a long time to be sulking on the situation, so I say we might as well treat this crash landing as a roller coaster ride.

And as a certain Japanese theme park would say: please scream inside your heart.

SIA Reviewing Their Network

SIA is also currently conducting a review to determine the shape and size of their network over the longer term. The review is expected to be completed by end-September.

32 of their aircraft, out of 220 including seven freighters, are deployed on passenger services. All seven freighters are operational and 33 passenger aircrafts are deployed on cargo-only services.

“We have parked 119 aircraft at Singapore Changi Airport and 29 aircraft are stored in Alice Springs (in Australia). We will continue to monitor the situation and, when appropriate, will return the aircraft to Singapore ahead of reintroducing them to our operations.”

Retrenchments & Unemployment Rising

If you’ve been on a social media fast for the past few days to escape the negativity, there’s more bad news.

SIA reviewing their network basically means with lesser passengers, they’ve got to reduce capacity.

In 2020, Singapore has already seen a drop in the number of jobs available in Singapore.

The number of jobs available in Singapore has shrunk by 121,800 in the second quarter of 2020, more than 4x worse than the first quarter where total employment only shrunk by 25,600.

Which means there’ll be more people fighting for fewer jobs.

The authorities have advised that if people are unable to get a full-time job in this time of uncertainty, they should go for attachment opportunities or training programmes wherever possible.

Keep yourself relevant and updated, they said, so that when the economy bounces back, you’ll be ready to be hired again.

You can read more about the statistics here.

Watch this for a complete summary of what REALLY happened to Qoo10, and why it's like a K-drama:

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Victor Fong
Email: [email protected]