Singapore Airlines prepares to grow beyond recovery

While the Asia-Pacific airline industry is still catching up with the other regions in terms of international recovery, Singapore Airlines (SIA) remains ahead of the pack.

The airline's recent earnings report underlined the fact that the SIA Group's capacity is essentially back to pre-COVID levels, and will likely surpass those levels on a consistent basis this year.

Like many other airlines, SIA has achieved record profits for its fiscal 2023 - which extends through Mar-2024 - although the gains were strongest in the first half of the year.

Even during the pandemic period, SIA was adamant that it wanted to come out of the COVID-19 crisis in a stronger position than its rivals so it could take advantage of new opportunities.

It has certainly done that, and the group is addressing the market with refinements to its model. This includes a growing role for its Scoot LCC subsidiary, which is even branching into regional jets.

The SIA operation has a somewhat different look compared to before the pandemic, as the SilkAir subsidiary with its narrowbody services has been merged into the mainline airline.

Some markets have also taken longer to recover, most notably mainland China, but the airline is reporting significant improvement, even there.

SIA has been in the headlines for very unfortunate reasons recently, due to injuries caused by severe turbulence on a 21-May-2023 flight. But as this update illustrates, the airline is in a strong situation overall relative to its peers.