Singapore Airlines Group’s full-year results for the year 2019/2020 illustrate the dramatic effect of COVID-19 on the airline business globally.
The group entered its fourth quarter on the back of strong results and good passenger numbers in the first three quarters, but in February 2020 COVID started to spread and demand collapsed.
Decisive cost-cuts and capacity reductions were implemented but revenues in Q4 of 2019/2020 were 21,9% down from the previous year’s Q4. Capacity is now reduced by 96% until June, at least.
As oil demand slumped due to COVID’s effect on global travel and industry, the oil price plunged, which led to hedging losses. More hedging losses loom for the year 2020/2021, as capacity cuts will mean less fuel consumption, below what was hedged.
The group’s nett loss for the year was SGD212m (R2,79bn), a reversal of the previous year’s SGD683m (R8,97bn) nett profit.
The Group incorporates Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot, plus its MRO, SIA Engineering.
