The global aviation recovery isn’t continuing at the same rate across the globe. While North American aviation has taken significant strides to return to near normal and generate profits once more, Europe seems to be slightly further back. It’s not just Europe, though. The road to recovery has been a long and steady one for Singapore Airlines who is now operating at a -40% deficit from pre-pandemic flight levels.

Singapore Airlines reported a reduced loss for the first quarter of its financial year. (Photo: Vincenzo Pace – Simple Flying)

Border controls and travel restrictions

When revealing its figures for the previous quarter, Singapore Airlines highlighted that it continued to be impacted by border controls and travel restrictions for a large part of the quarter. Despite this, the airline did see its passenger load increase by roughly a factor of ten across its group airlines from 38,000 in 2020 to 362,000 this year.

Unfortunately, it seems that the airline group is still struggling to fill the flights that it is operating. The group’s airlines recorded a load factor of 15% for the quarter, meaning that, on average, just 15% of seats were occupied on each flight operated by the airline.

The airline group had a load factor of just 15% for the quarter. (Photo: Vincenzo Pace – Simple Flying)

A little bit of fleet change

There was a little bit of change when it came to the Singapore Airlines fleet during the quarter. Unlike in last year’s Q2 results when Singapore Airlines revealed it was going to retire several Airbus A380s, there were no real shocks this time around.

The airline did take delivery of three new Airbus A350s during the quarter. Meanwhile, two Airbus A330s were returned to their respective lessors. As a result, the Singapore Airlines fleet now has 115 passenger planes and seven cargo jets.

Scoot’s fleet is slightly smaller, with 49 passenger aircraft, a net increase of two. The airline added its first three A321neos while sending a single Airbus A320ceo back to the lessor. As such, across the Singapore Airlines Group, there are now 171 aircraft with an average age of five years and 11 months.

There was no news on the airline’s Airbus A380 fleet. (Photo: Vincenzo Pace – Simple Flying)

Over the quarter, the airline group’s route network increased by three destinations to 63. Interestingly, the seven cargo aircraft serve even more destinations with 76 points on the route map. Singapore Airlines expects to offer a 33% capacity for the coming quarter compared to pre-pandemic levels. The airline group hopes to service roughly half of its pre-pandemic network, meaning that a large chunk of the airline’s destinations remain without a Singapore Airlines or Scoot service.

Cre: Simple Flying

Nguyen Xuan Nghia – COMM