Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Singapore Airlines Training Centre. My name is Siva, and I'm from the Singapore Airlines Public Affairs team. Welcome to our full year media and analyst briefing. Very happy to see you again. This year we will follow the usual format. We will first have the financial numbers presented by our CFO, Jo-Ann Tan. That'll be followed by the strategy and outlook by our CEO, Goh Choon Phong. If I could just request that everybody puts their phone on silent, that'd be much appreciated. We will have a Q&A after this. For those who are logging in virtually, you will be able to ask questions through the widget that's available in there. Without any further ado, could I please invite Jo-Ann? Thank you.
Morning, everyone. Welcome. I think you've already seen our news release. The objective is to give you a little bit more color around our results. Key highlights first. For the full year 2025, 2026, our operating profit was SGD 2.47 billion, roughly a 39% increase compared to the same period last year. You will see from here that the group achieved a record SGD 20.5 billion in terms of revenue. This is mainly bolstered by passenger flown revenue, which was much higher than it was last year, in particular compared with second half, if you do a second half comparison. Total expenditure increase was a more modest 1.8%. The non-fuel costs rose 5.4% on the back of capacity expansion and inflationary cost pressure.
This was partially offset by lower net fuel costs due to lower full-year average fuel prices, lower U.S. dollar against the Sing dollar, and hedging gains. At the net profit level, 2025-2026 profit came in at SGD 1.18 billion, 57% lower than a year ago. Now, this was largely because of a decline due to the absence of a prior year one-off accounting gain, coupled with the share of full-year losses from Air India. Whereas last year, we accounted only for four months of Air India losses. Now, excluding the accounting gain last year, the group's net profit would have declined by 29.5% instead. I think here, in the course of the presentation, we will also show you our balance sheet.
The SIA Group holds one of the strongest balance sheet in the airline industry, and we will be very well-positioned to navigate the very volatile operating environment that we now are in. The board has also proposed a final ordinary dividend of SGD 0.22 per share and the second tranche payout of our special dividend at SGD 0.07 per share. Including the interim ordinary and special dividend that has already been paid out in December of last year, the total dividend for this 2025, 2026 will be SGD 0.37 per share. Breaking down our full-year operating performance for the three main companies in the group, you will see that all our companies showed year-on-year performance improvements. In particular, the full service and the LCC had a very stellar second half and full year performance, contributing to the group's robust operating profit improvement that you see. Sorry.
On a full-year basis, our passenger capacity increased 3.47%. Cargo came in at a 1.4% growth, bringing overall total capacity growth to 2.5%. Looking at the full-year results, let's look at second half first. We saw a record second half operating profit of SGD 1.57 billion. This was supported by a record second half revenue, which grew 8% year-over-year. Total expenditure increased 1.6%, driven by higher non-fuel expense, partly offset by lower net fuel costs. On the full-year basis, the robust 39% improvement in full-year operating profit to SGD 2.4 billion is partially attributed to a record full-year group revenue on the back of the robust passenger traffic, passenger demand and passenger yield increase that we saw. Total full-year operating expense was up 1.8%.
Although the non-fuel cost rose 5.4% from capacity expansion and rate increases, this was mitigated by net fuel cost decrease of 6.7%, mainly driven by lower fuel prices and a weaker U.S. dollar. This shows our group revenue. You would see that other than the record quarter 3 that we had, we also had record revenue for the second half-year as well as a full-year basis. Next chart shows you our passenger RASK number. RASK is a measure of revenue per available seat flown. For the second half, we saw a RASK increase of 4.4%. On a full-year basis, RASK improved 1.1%. This is due to both increases in load factor as well as in yields.
The next chart shows the passenger load factor and RASK for both the full service and the LCC. Full service is the one on the left in blue, our LCC is the orange or yellow on the right-hand side. You will see that both of our airlines showed very strong RASK improvement. In particular, I think there was a step up in the second half of the year. Why second half? Just to give a bit more color against that. Second half is typically the strongest season for LCC. For the FSC, third quarter is our peak quarter due to our year-end holidays. This year in the fourth quarter, the full service carrier had a boost from a pre-Easter holiday travel arising from the timing shift of Easter to very early in April.
In March, we also captured the spillover of Europe-bound traffic as capacity through Middle Eastern hubs was affected by the Middle East conflict. For the second half of the year, RASK saw an improvement of 5.1% for the FSC and 4.8% for LCC. On a full-year basis, FSC RASK rose 2% and LCC RASK rose 1.7%. Cargo. Full-year cargo load factor experienced a modest growth due to buoyant demand from some of the key verticals, such as aerospace, data center equipment uplifts. On a yield basis, full-year cargo yields continued to come under pressure from airlines because they were redeploying some of their U.S. capacity to other routes because of impact from U.S. tariffs.
Just to call out, on a Q4 basis, our cargo yield saw a modest 0.3% growth versus Q4 of last year, this can be primarily attributed to the fact that we did do some adjustment on cargo fuel surcharges in order to mitigate the increase in fuel price that we saw coming out from the Middle East conflict. Moving on to expense. This is the group expense picture. For the full year, expenditure grew 1.8%. More meaningful to look at it from a pie chart perspective. I think this pie chart clearly underscores the fact that fuel cost is the largest cost component. On a after hedging basis for last year, 2025, 2026, our fuel costs came in about SGD 5 billion, representing about 28% of our overall group expense.
I'll cover fuel costs in more details in the next slide. On this slide, just zooming in on the non-fuel costs, we saw an increase of 5.4% driven by increased flying as well as inflationary cost pressure. Now, if you look at some of the items that have increased slightly higher than our capacity, I'll just go through that and give us a bit of explanation. Firstly, on depreciation and lease of aircraft charges coming at a 5.6%, the higher depreciation is due to more heavy maintenance visits and engine overhauls and delivery of some aircraft. You will notice that handling passenger landing, parking, and overfly charges have also seen increase. This is due to the increase in flights as well as rate increases.
MRO saw a relatively large increase of 28.5%. This was because last year's MRO costs had the benefit of a one-off. There was a write-back in provision for return costs from the early termination of two 380 leases last year. If you were to exclude the one-off from last year, MRO costs would have risen roughly in line with capacity increase at 2.5%. Now, moving on to fuel. This is showing our net fuel costs for the full year. Fuel costs was SGD 360 million lower due to lower fuel prices before hedging, a weakening of U.S. dollar against Sing Dollar. We had some increase in hedging gains, which was partially mitigated by the increase in volume uplift. On a full year basis, fuel costs came down 6.7%.
There was an impact in March in terms of fuel costs, in jet fuel costs, which more than doubled. However, because it only affected one month in the full year, on a full year basis, jet fuel prices before hedging were still lower versus last year. Additionally, within the aviation industry, there is typically a bit of a lag effect on fuel prices. The impact of higher fuel prices that arose from the Middle East impact was only partially reflected in the March numbers. The full impact of higher fuel prices is expected to feed through from April of this financial year onwards. Now, many of you are already familiar, SIA has a fuel hedging program. Our programmatic fuel hedging is very much a part of our well-established risk management framework. This is designed to provide some protection against sudden and significant increase in jet fuel prices.
It does help us to attain a certain level of predictability in relation to our fuel costs, which is, as you've seen, the largest operational cost. Our hedging does not negate the full impact of any high fuel price. This table basically gives you a view as at May 1st that our proportion of fuel hedge, and we continue to pursue our hedging program. Now, going into operating profit. For second half, we achieved a record operating profit at SGD 1.57, as I've mentioned before, billion. This is a 72% increase versus same period last year. On a full year basis, our operating profit came in at SGD 2.4 billion, a 38.9% increase versus same period last year. This waterfall chart shows the relative contribution.
Really, the strong operating profit numbers are very much driven by higher passenger flown revenue and lower net fuel costs, moderated by some of the non-fuel cost increases that I mentioned earlier. Moving on to net profit. This year, the group net profit is down compared to last year. Again, the waterfall tells a better story. The decline in net profit is really mainly attributable to the absence of last year's one-off non-cash accounting gain on disposal of Vistara, the quantum of which comes in about SGD 1.1 billion. If you were to exclude the accounting gain from last year, the group's net profit would have declined by SGD 496 million or 29.5%.
The other large component of net profit decrease is also our full-year share of Air India's operating losses this year versus only four months last year because we only completed the transaction in November of 2024. Other factors driving net profit down was a net interest expense versus interest income last year, as well as a higher tax expense. This slide shows the SIA Group's balance sheet. You can see that the group maintains a very strong cash balance at SGD 7.9 billion. If you were to include fixed deposits that are placed in tenures longer than 12 months, our cash balance is at SGD 9.6 billion. As I said at the start, we hold one of the strongest balance sheets in the airline industry, and this helps us to be very well-positioned given the volatile operating environment that we are now in.
Full-year EBITDA margins, we have operated at 21.9%. Now, dividends. We do not have a fixed dividend policy. For the financial year 2025, 2026, the board has proposed a final ordinary dividend payout of SGD 0.22 per share, including the SGD 0.05 interim dividend that was already paid out in December of last year. Total ordinary dividend for 2025, 2026 will be SGD 0.27 per share. Back in November of 2025, SIA announced our plans to return capital to shareholders via a special dividend package of SGD 0.10 per share annually over three years starting from 2025, 2026. This is really a reflection of the SIA Group's strong financial position. For this year, the board has proposed a special dividend payout of SGD 0.07, including the interim SGD 0.03 that was already paid out in December.
The total special dividend for this year will be the SGD 0.10 per share as we had announced in November. Total ordinary and special dividend payout for 2025, 2026 will be SGD 0.37 per share. Now, of course, this will be subject to shareholder approval at our coming AGM on the 24th of July, and the final dividend will be paid on the 28th of August for shareholders as of 12th of August 2026. This is my second last slide that shows our group operating fleet. We are expecting nine new aircraft deliveries for this coming financial year with three retirements. Consequently, our operating fleet is expected to expand by six aircraft to 224 aircraft by the end of 2026, 2027. Last slide for myself. We're just showing off, showing you our five-year projected CapEx.
You will see that, on average for the next four years, we are expecting a CapEx spend in the proximity of almost SGD 4 billion. Right. Thank you.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Again, a warm welcome to attend this briefing. Jo-Ann talked about the dividend of SGD 0.37 on an annual basis, of course, subject to shareholders' approval at the AGM. That works out to be close to 6.6% based on the current share price. For those of you who are holding on to the SIA shares, congratulations. I think it's not a bad return. I would like to go through the topics that I usually go through, except that I would provide more emphasis on three key topics, which you'll see later. Let me go through some updates on our strategic initiatives. We continue to invest in the three pillars of our brand promise.
On the product side, you would have learned from our press releases about the renovation that we have done to the lounges around the world, Brisbane, Bangkok, Hong Kong. Today, with the retirement of the 737NG, we are probably the only or at least among the very few major carriers operating flat business class, lie-flat business class across the entire network and providing seat back entertainment across the entire network and free unlimited Wi-Fi for all customers. Of course, we'll also continue to improve on our IFE offerings, including our announcements that we will be adopting Starlink on some of our planes. We also are continuing to improve our F&B offerings. More of that will be shared.
Upcoming, we will be completing the renovation at our T2 lounge and for the coming year, also the SilverKris lounge at Melbourne Airport. We are going to launch the new product by the end of this year. As all of you are aware, the new product was supposed to be launched together with the launch of our 777-9. Because of the delay of the -9, we had to delay the launch by almost six years. I would like to assure everybody that when the product launch was delayed by six years, we have continuing to look at how to improve the product during this period and making sure that when it is launched by end of the year, it will remain an industry-leading product that we can offer.
I hope all of you will be able to come and take a look at the product by end of the year and share the excitement with us. Of course, services, we continue to invest in the training of our people and also enabling more personalized services through the use of technology and supplementing with devices that our frontline people will be equipped with. Network. As a whole, at the end of the last financial year, SIA and Scoot together served 134 destinations, of which 77 points are actually served by SIA, the full service carrier. The remaining 57 points are uniquely served by Scoot. Of course, Scoot serve more than the 57 points because there are some overlapping routes.
What I would like to emphasize here is that Scoot, because of its operating model, is able to add to the SIA Group network significantly, as you can see here. This is particularly also because Scoot has been able to introduce a new smaller capacity planes, Embraer E2, and that allowed them actually during, since the inception of the plane, introduction of the plane to now add 12 new points to Scoot's network. I would like to also point out that the 134 destinations that are served by the SIA Group represent more than 80% of the destinations served from Singapore Changi Airport. 37% of this total destination served from Changi Airport are actually uniquely served by the Singapore Airlines Group Airlines. What does it mean?
It means that if not for Singapore Airlines being based here and serving these points, these points could potentially not have been able to be connected to Singapore. It is also important to point out that we actually work as in Singapore Airlines Group, actually work with about 60% of the foreign carriers operating into Singapore. That would cover, I would say, almost all, if not that, at least most of the full service carriers operating into Singapore. As you know, for LCC, there are a lot more point-to-point traffic that they carry. Again, what does that mean? Most of the carriers when they decide, especially if you are going to deploy wide body long-haul operations, and when they come into Singapore, they are not just looking at Singapore as the only destination they would serve.
Because frankly speaking, with a population of 6 million people, we are a very small country. To them, it's about serving Singapore, of course, but also using Singapore as a way to tap other regions and especially Southeast Asia, but also South West Pacific. What SIA has done in collaboration with them is to allow them to use our network to go beyond Singapore and tap Southeast Asia, South West Pacific, et cetera. If there wasn't this network that we could provide, it may not be commercially viable for these airlines actually to operate into Singapore because of the size of the market. Of course, for us, it's not just about interline cooperation.
We also get into deep commercial cooperations with many of the like-minded carriers around the world, as you can see here, and with some of the latest update that I'm sure all of you are aware of. In each of those partnership, we ensure that there is a tangible win-win outcome. So far, we're glad to say that it has been the case. We continue to grow the KrisFlyer ecosystems. As you can see here, Kris+, KrisShop, Pelago are all now part of that lifestyle ecosystem. What is also important to point out is the continued growth of the KrisFlyer base. At 11.8 million, it is almost twice the population of Singapore. That's no mean feat. Because it is attractive, that's the reason why more people are joining. We also see, therefore, an increase in the program revenue.
Next, I wanted to touch on sustainability. As you know, we have always been committed to the IATA 2050 net zero goal, and we continue to make progress in each of those pillars, as you can see up here. What is also important, and as we have always emphasized, sustainability and the net zero 2050 goal cannot be achieved by a single airline. It has to be an industry effort, and even more so than that, an ecosystem effort involving manufacturers, fuel suppliers, government. We will go continue to play a leadership position in bringing the industry along towards the achievement of this goal. Of course, on our own, we will also demonstrate that we are making progress in the respective areas. We will never forget our social responsibility. We will always look at how we can contribute back to the community we serve.
Here are some of the examples of what we have done. Let me get on to the three key topics I would like to elaborate on. Quite frankly, even if I don't elaborate, you will be asking questions later, so I might as well say it now. Air India. I think it's important to actually go back in time and explain why is it that we wanted to pursue a multi-hub strategy. When we were talking about a multi-hub strategy, we pointed out at that point in time the constraint that Singapore will have as a small country, a small economy with relatively small population base. I was sharing with my colleagues yesterday in our internal communication that when I first joined the airline some 30 years ago, we were planning growth at about 8% every year.
If you compound it will be even more. Today, that is no longer the type of growth that we can target simply because of the market base as well as constraints about operations, slots, etc. That's the reason why the country is building Terminal 5. Even with Terminal 5, at some point in time, we know that the capacity will be used up. Fundamentally, we are in a small market with no domestic operation. Apart on the no domestic operation, the constraint that comes with it was best illustrated by the experience we had during COVID. I think many of you recall how difficult it was for us because we had just simply nowhere to operate to because nobody else was opening the border during the first year, especially, in fact, two years of COVID.
We ended up basically operating only for cargo. That wasn't the case for many other airlines with a significant or sizable domestic market and domestic network. It's that combination of that and also the physical limitation to our growth at some point in time that we were proactively looking at how to ensure that we create new engine of growth for the group so that we can continue to grow in the longer term. India. If you look at India today, of course, I would go back and touch on our initial foray into India. If you look at India today, I don't think there's any questions about its growth potential. More than 800,000 million middle class by 2047. 125 airports in 2024, last year.
I don't know how many they have added since, but the target was that they will reach 230 airports by 2035 or 2030. Tripling of the fleet, operating fleet based in India by 2035. All these are indication of its growth potential. On top of that, you can see all the projections of passenger traffic growth. Even when today India is really the third biggest aviation market. We have never had any delusion that it is an easy path. Way back when we started the joint venture with our partner Tata Sons to set up Vistara, we knew at that point in time that it is a long game.
I recall when we announced that particular joint venture, I actually told the analysts and the journalists present at that point in time that it is definitely not going to be a walk in the park. I think that is probably another statement now, but it is something we recognized right from the beginning because we had been operating to India for a long time. We know the market. We know how difficult it is. We also have a sense, even way back then, that this is a market that holds tremendous potential, and today, that potential is even more obvious. We started Vistara with a strong partner, the Tatas, and we built Vistara into India's best-loved airline, winning many recognitions from around the world, including Skytrax.
Then of course, there was this consolidation when our partner also bought 100% of Air India. Subsequent to that, there was that merger or integration of all airlines into one. To be sure, at that point when we were talking about Vistara, the mindset and the aim, the objective, has always been building Vistara into an airline that Indian nationals will be very proud of, and indeed, it became that way. Vistara's growth organically will always be limited by access to slots and rights, which Air India possessed. With the Tatas together, we then went into turning around the efforts to turn around Air India.
Air India today has the same issues that they have to resolve like any other airlines, particularly in the area of supply chain, as you know, delays in aircraft delivery, parts supply, and also what happened arising from the Middle East conflict. On top of that, they also had three other issues in the last year that they have to contend with. Firstly, all these are external factors. The top two affects basically all airlines around the world, but the bottom three really is more relevant and more related to Air India itself. The closure of Pakistan airspace affects only Indian-based operator, not anyone else. Everyone else can traverse their airspace except them at the moment. The unfortunate crash of AI 171, which led to safety pause. They reduced significantly the frequencies, especially international flights, but also domestic flights, while they relook at all their processes.
Of course, the depreciation of the Indian rupee. That affects the performance because, as you know, in airlines, most of our expenditure are actually in U.S. dollars, particularly fuel and aircraft. These are certainly headwinds, but these are all external factors. Notwithstanding this headwind, the Air India team has been very active in the transformation of Air India itself. I have elaborated some of it here. I will leave you to read it. Let me present it to you somewhat visually to see how that has changed since the transformation program. This picture here show you what Air India used to be like. So you see the lounge, the Air India head office, you know, the training facilities, the seats, the office. This is what it look like today. The change is significant.
You can see for yourself visually the improvements they have made in all these areas, both from a perspective of staff and training to customer fronting. Indeed, all those improvements were shown or resulted in actual KPI improvement as well, and here are some of them that I would highlight. I want to highlight particularly the Net Promoter Score, which you know all of us track, because in some sense it is how the customers perceived the brand and the service that Air India provides and whether or not they would recommend to someone else for their experience. A 50-point improvement cannot be achieved without very transformative efforts and change for the customer. I want to go on to also state that we are committed to support Air India in its transformation efforts, but we are not alone. Our fellow shareholders, our partners, Tata Sons, is equally committed.
We want to make Air India indeed a world-class carrier, a world-class airline with an Indian heart. Next topic I want to touch on is the Middle East conflict. The effects of the conflict, I think I need not elaborate more in this very well-informed audience. Fuel price is definitely a big part of it. What I want to share is that we have, at the start of this whole conflict, been very proactive in how we want to manage. While you see many airlines around the world have been cutting capacity, we have approached it rather differently. Firstly, we did not cut anything other than to Dubai and we didn't cut anything.
In fact, we were very proactive right from the start to ensure that operationally we are prepared for challenges that arose because of the conflict, but also potentially going forward, such as availability of jet fuel in key airports that we operate to. We continue to monitor and continue to look at what contingency we may need to put in place. Commercially, even right from the start, we are already looking at how we can better capture some of the displaced traffic through some of the ad hoc additional flights that we can put in within the capability of our resources. This particular approach and dealing have the full oversight of the management committee.
We look at it at the management. Of course, the operating divisions and commercial division look at it all the time, but the management committee actually have an overview of the progress and changes weekly. Beyond the immediate action, we are always looking for opportunities for more sustained benefits to the group. I have listed some of it. Despite all this, we continue to grow our network. Scoot continue to take, in fact, announce the acquisition of 11 more A320neo family aircraft, including A321neo. We want to make sure that we're well-positioned to be able to reach as well as secure some of this traffic, especially corporate traffic, on a sustained basis. Jo-Ann talked about cargo earlier.
I will not elaborate more. Suffice to say that we too are looking at how we can enhance our capabilities to handle cargoes that might be able to swing on a sustained basis through Singapore. We are able to do all that despite the challenges that one can see from the cost perspective, the supplier perspective, the availability of fuel perspective because of the strong foundations, this particularly these three foundations that we've built, which give us the confidence and the agility to be able to respond quickly and effectively. The last major topic, GenAI. Again, I want to take us back in time to talk about how we have prepared.
We didn't really expect, of course, that Gen AI would burst onto the scene in 2022, but we did start our digital transformation some 10 years ago because we believe that the digital capability is going to be a key foundation for us to continue to have competitive advantage. Back then, the four key areas that we were focusing on were to first create a digital mindset and culture among our people. Then we also identify specific digital skill sets that we believe will be important for the airlines and for the organization going forward. Among them were actually two topics that I'm sure all of you will be familiar with. One is data analytics, the other one was AI. Of course, at that point in time, it was more referring to the traditional AI.
Even then, we were seeing the benefits of having AI devices, AI applications helping us with our decision-making. We had to significantly upgrade at that point our IT infrastructure to be able to tap onto the latest technology. We know that we cannot do it completely within ourself. We want to be able to collaborate with big, established IT companies, with startups, with bright new ideas, as well as with research institution. 10 years then, when GenAI came into the picture in 2022, the organization was actually ready. We didn't know, of course, that GenAI would be such a big thing, but the organization was digitally prepared. When it came in and we saw that potential, we knew that it is a game changer that we must prepare ourself to harness.
In the following year, 2023, we already have the framework or what we call blueprint set up for the tapping, harnessing of GenAI. That includes also right from the beginning risk management aspect. Because it's one thing to just deploy the GenAI, but we've got to make sure that we are able to manage whatever risk that it may present itself. For example, potentially in cybersecurity. We have adopted in some sense, right from the beginning, because of experience and the fact that we have established a foundation digitally, we have adopted an enterprise approach or mindset towards the GenAI adoption. What does that mean?
Instead of just looking at initiative, individual initiative and trying to get use cases and all that, there is a strategy of driving looking across the organizations, looking at different areas of organization, revenue, operations, services, productivity holistically, and drive the key initiative, AI initiative or GenAI initiative based on what benefits it will bring to your organizations. At the same time, while we're driving all these initiatives to look at what kind of sharing between the initiative, between the applications, between the developments need to be established right from the start, such as data. That's very important.
Importantly, we also want to emphasize that as we embark on this journey, and it's gonna be a fast-paced journey, we want to be able to bring our people along, and hence great emphasis on educating, on providing training to our people, making sure that they learned, and then making sure that they know how to scale things. In doing that, obviously, we will need our people to have the right devices, the right support. In this particular case, because of the digital mindset that we set up right from the beginning, it was actually a very smooth process, and I will show you in my next slide about the adoption of the use of GenAI tools. This slide, I think, speaks for itself, so I wouldn't need to elaborate.
Suffice to say that we will continue to ensure that we harness the evolving and fast-paced development of GenAI for the organization. In fact, you know, we all talk about agentic these days. We have actually created our own agent builder that is relevant to our environment and relevant to our industry. It was only launched in April. I mean, of course, we have agents built with other applications and so forth, such as Salesforce and all that, but this is our own. Even within a short span of a month, our people are able to actually leverage that to build agent for their own work. More than 1,500 agents has been built so far, and that's just the beginning.
This is a familiar slide. I just want to show people that everything we do, it's still relevant if you were to reference back what we said about our strategic initiatives and our foundations. We will continue to ensure that we strengthen all this area. Thank you.
Thank you, Choon Phong. As we prepare for the Q&A, maybe I'd like to just remind everybody, we've got roughly around 30 odd minutes or so. We've got about 30 odd minutes or so. If I could please ask you to indicate to me when you want to ask a question. If I could ask you to please limit yourself to one question, that'd be wonderful, because we do have a limited amount of time. Those who are online, you would be able to send your questions, and we will take them as we go along as well. While we set up, if you could just give us a minute, please. Great. I'd like to invite Choon Phong and Joanne back on stage.
Joining them will be Lee Lik Hsin, who's the Chief Commercial Officer, Tan Kai Ping, the Chief Operations Officer, as well as Leslie Thng, who is the CEO of Scoot. Ladies and gentlemen, please. Great. Could I have the first question, please? If I could ask you to identify yourself and the organization you come from, please. Thank you.
Okay. Hi. Good morning. I'm Tabitha from DBS. My first question is on yields. We saw a strong uplift in the fourth quarter for both SIA and Scoot, particularly at Scoot, even outpacing SIA, despite Scoot's more price-sensitive customer base and SIA getting more displaced, long-haul flows and being able to reprice more aggressively. Can we get more color on that? Also perhaps, quantify the improvement in March versus Jan and Feb?
The improvement in yields has actually been for the full second half and not just for the last quarter. Of course, some of it is arising from the conflict. As you know, we've announced that we have raised our fares, that's only from March onwards. Prior to that, we had already been on a yield improvement program, our October to December results already reflected that. I mean, the improvement in yields is a function also of demand and supply, that we were able to tap into some of the spill traffic from the Middle Eastern carriers for some of our long-haul routes, in particular from Europe, from U.S., and also Australia. That also helped our yield position.
Yep. For Scoot, I think Jo-Ann has mentioned about the second half is always the peak travel period for us. Similarly to what Lee Lik Hsin has mentioned, we have also implemented yielding up initiative from October. You see that for quarter three and quarter four, our yield were also very strong. In addition, it's because in the last 18 months or so, we have added quite a bit of new destinations. Through the collaborative efforts with trade as well as with travel agency, the intra-ASEAN travel continued to be very strong, as reflected in our PLF. That give us a lot of confidence to continue to yield up where we can, where flights continue to be strong demand.
We had also recently, as what SIA has done, increased our fares as well because to defray some of the increase in operating costs due to high jet fuel price.
Thank you. Next question, please. We'll go to the two gentlemen there, the gentleman in the blue shirt and then beside him and then in front. Thank you.
Hi. Thanks for the presentation earlier.
Sorry, could I just trouble you to identify yourself?
I'm Jun Yuan from Reuters. Earlier, I understand that from the balance sheet, I think there is significant cash balances. How much capital is SIA willing to invest in Air India in the next year? When can we expect the company's turnaround plan to bear fruit, given the drastic international flight reductions that Air India has planned?
On the capital injection, there is nothing that we can comment at the moment. Obviously, you can expect that it's a discussion that we will have to have with our fellow shareholders. Air India's plan, I suppose when they are done with it, they will then share with the media and the market.
Thank you.
Hi. Thanks for the presentation. I'm Hui Jie from CNBC. I just wanted to ask, when SIA released its results, did you expect this level of losses from Air India? I believe Bloomberg had reported beforehand it was USD 2.4 billion, this seemed to be a higher figure from SIA. Basically, when can shareholders expect some sort of turnaround for Air India?
I think my presentation in some sense have addressed that. You saw the challenges that, and you have, and really they are largely external challenges. I have also shown you some of the actions taken in the transformation efforts. It is going to be a long game. There is no shortcut.
Thank you.
Maybe the gentleman here in the third row, please.
Hi, management. Thank you for taking my question. This is Eric with Bloomberg Intelligence. We obviously saw a very strong uplift on your European routes in terms of demand load factors in March. Can you provide some type of color in terms of how that demand has sustained or eased off going into the first quarter, especially with some of the Middle East hubs bringing back flights?
Mm-hmm. If we just pass the mic there.
As you have noted, the Middle East carriers have restored a large part of their capacity after the 1st month of the conflict. Obviously that means they have started carrying passengers again. For the month of March itself, many of them were not operating flights at all. In terms of our outlook, we are still quite bullish on our ability to tap into some of the spill flows because there could be customers who change their plans and want to travel via alternate hubs. You will see that we have announced increases in flights to Europe. We still believe that there is opportunities for us in that regard.
Thank you, Lee Lik Hsin. We'll go to Chen Chuanren, and then we'll take the questions online.
Thank you. Chen Chuanren, Air Transport World. I guess my question is on your fuel visibility. I think there's no doubt that you have healthy fuel supply from Singapore. My question is from your international hubs. You know, what kind of fuel visibility do you have from your international points? I think there's a lot of airlines who have cut because of the lack of potential jet fuel overseas.
Thank you.
Thank you for the question, Chuanren. We continue to review this. Obviously, the situation is quite volatile. For now, in the near term, fuel supply is stable throughout our whole network. There is no long-term picture because of the very volatile situation in respect of both the Straits of Hormuz as well as our sources of fuel supply and also the whole configuration around refinery for jet fuel. Yeah. For now, situation is quite stable.
Thank you, Kai Ping. We'll just go online, and we'll come back to the people in the room. We've got a couple of questions. Firstly, from Perry Yung in UBS. Do we see any slowdown of forward bookings in response to higher airfare ticket prices? Secondly, given the significant adjustment of airfare in response to the higher fuel costs, could you provide some color or guidance around passenger yield growth? There's a third question on Air India capital injection, but that's been answered already.
At this point in time, demand is holding up. However, we are monitoring the situation very carefully because there's a lot of macroeconomic uncertainty around the world. There was second part?
The second question was, given the significant adjustment to airfare in response to higher fuel costs, can you give color guidance around the yield growth?
We do expect to have some degree of yield growth for the first half of the year. As we have stated, our airfare increases and whatever yield increase we manage to get, certainly does not cover the increase in fuel costs.
Thank you. Next question from Danny, which has been largely answered. It's around the risk of jet fuel availability, outlook for fuel supply, in the peak summer months, and if we think there's gonna be a industry flight disruption from SIA's perspective. I believe that's been largely covered, Kai Ping, anything to add?
No.
No, I think that's been largely covered earlier. Thank you. The next one would be from Deepak from HSBC. Have you seen any demand destruction due to higher fares on routes where you have retained or grown capacity? This is not considering the routes where you may have rationalized capacity. What level of fuel cost pass-through can you expect in this environment? Will LCCs be better off or worse off in this environment?
I think both the first and the second question was already answered. We said that at this point, demand is holding up. On the second question was on pass-through, right?
Yes.
Which we've said that, whatever increase in air fares it definitely doesn't cover the fuel cost increase.
Sure. There's a question on-
Sorry. That one. Yeah.
I think on the LCC, I just want to add that, yes, the margin for the LCC is thinner than FSC, but I think because of the foundations that we have established in the last financial year, as well as the strong demand that we are seeing in the immediate departure, we as a whole, I think Scoot is still planning to grow in the first half of this financial year.
Yeah. Sorry, just in relation to that, there's a question on will the capacity cuts being rolled out how will it vary between FSC and Scoot?
As Leslie has said, the LCC capacity will continue to grow, and that is the same for the full service carrier as well. Of course, there could be adjustments, like, we could shift some capacity from Asia into Europe, but overall, we are growing.
Thank you. Next we have Kaseedit from Citi. Question is, how much more cash likely required for Air India, that's been answered. Fuel pass-through has been answered. How should investors think of SIA potentially taking opportunities from the current Middle East conflict? Would SIA think of reducing dividend CapEx to further preserve cash?
On the opportunities question, I believe already answered in relation to how we are looking at network opportunities.
On the issue of dividend, I think we've always said we do not have a dividend policy. Our dividend is considered or the board considers our dividend on a number of factors, including company performance, what our CapEx and investment requirements are before deciding on a dividend payout. The fact that we have very strong balance sheet should speak for itself. This is really very much seen in the way that the board has announced that we are prepared and are planning for a special dividend over the next three years.
Sorry. We'll take one more question online and come back to the room, and this is from Abhishek in the Mint. What kind of role are you playing in the search for Campbell Wilson's successor? Do you want a Singapore Airlines executive to be the CEO of Air India? Is there a more active role that you're playing by having appointing more executives and as Air India's manager roles, and which verticals are these in?
The Air India board is the one responsible to look at who should be the next CEO. I guess you will have to wait for the announcement from the board.
Okay. We'll come back to the room. We'll go to Mayuko and then Peck Gek. Thank you. Then we'll go there. Thank you.
Good morning. Thank you very much. Mayuko Tani from Nikkei. I have a follow-up question on fuel. Well, you have mentioned that there is no visibility for long term, but how long, if the current situation continues, how many more months? Up to which month will you have the secured supply of fuel in Singapore? Another question is about the European route that you have been mounting. Oh, sorry, not European. You have mentioned that you have been mounting the capacity to seize the opportunity, I guess. At one point, will you consider cutting down the capacity or rather, you know, cutting down the number of the flights, that flights to the same destination or something that the other airlines are doing?
As I said, we are in a position where we don't need to cut capacity. I cannot comment on the other airlines, but our financial position is strong, and therefore, we are actually growing rather than cutting capacity.
Thank you. Peck Gek.
Good morning.
Maybe, I'll just add on. Mayuko, thanks for your question. Nobody actually has a clear view of fuel supply, including even the oil majors. What I can say is the first thing that will happen when fuel supply runs short will be fuel rationing at airports. At the airports that we fly today, there is no fuel rationing. You will know because you will hear fuel rationing.
Thank you. Peck Gek.
Good morning. Peck Gek from The Business Times. Mr. Goh, what is your definition of long in the long game? Thank you.
Well, as I pointed out, I mean, I used Vistara as one of the illustration. We started in 2013, but 10 years later, we see Vistara being able to establish itself as the leading carrier in India. How long would it take for Air India? I guess you just have to wait.
Thank you. Questions from the room. We'll go there.
Maybe I'll just add on to this part, which is the important thing is really to assess whether Air India itself is actually doing restructuring. Are they making progress? The factors that affect the performance of Air India, to what extent are they internal and external? I think you can make a good assessment from there.
Thank you. We'll go to-
Hi. Good morning. Alfred from FlightGlobal. My question is about fleet. Are there any indications of when you expect to receive your first 777-9? I noticed it was not in the sort of fleet outlook for the next financial year. The other bit is on the new cabin rollout. I understand that it will be unveiled later this year. When will we see it enter service? Is there a timeline for that? Thank you.
Well, the 777-9 question.
Yeah.
You noted it's not in the Jo-Ann's slide for the fleet this year. I guess, you can conclude from that we are not expecting it to show up in this financial year. It has been a long delayed program. Fingers crossed it's still in certification. Fingers crossed it shows up next time I show you.
I think it's useful for you to pose that question to Boeing.
Thank you. Next question from the room. Oh, sorry, cabin rollout.
As we have said, we are going to unveil the product later this year, and you can expect the rollout shortly thereafter.
Thank you. We will just go online. Shukor from Endau Analytics. It's a question for Jo-Ann. Could you please clarify if the SQ hedges include all jet fuel, and if there's any element of delta hedging in the process? For Goh Choon Phong, SIA has an awful track record in foreign investments, including failures in Ansett, Air New Zealand and Virgin. You've made a compelling argument on the investment in Air India, why should the shareholders believe, and how long is SIA prepared to wait?
On the question of hedges, the chart actually shows a combination of both our Brent hedge position as well as our MOPS. MOPS is a very, basically it’s jet fuel. That should answer your question.
I think if Shukor says that it's compelling, means that he's probably convinced. I hope that our shareholders too would understand the rationale and why we are doing it. As I mentioned earlier, really one have to look at if there are indeed tangible improvements, progress made by Air India. You can be rest assured that as shareholders, we will monitor that very closely. At the same time, we'll also, to the extent that we can, support them where it is relevant in the transformation process.
Thank you, Choon Phong. We'll have another question from Brendan Sobie. Can you explain how you're able to expand the long-haul operations in the current FY Madrid, more flights to Gatwick, Munich example, without any wide-body deliveries? Are you reducing capacity elsewhere in the network? Are there delays in the 350 retrofits that perhaps opens up more capacity than previously expected?
We have adjusted our capacities in other parts of the network to enable the European growth. We have aircraft that we deploy on some Asian routes that are capable of flying to European routes. On some of these Asian routes, we have changed the aircraft, some to smaller aircraft, for example, the narrow bodies, in order to enable this growth. The second part was?
The second part was, are the delays in the 350 retrofits perhaps opening up more capacity than expected?
I've explained how we enable the capacities.
Yep.
It doesn't have anything to do with the A350 retrofit program.
Yeah. Exactly. Just to reiterate, overall, it's an increase in capacity rather than a reduction. We'll come back to the room. Go back to Chen Chuanren. We probably have another time for another two or three more questions.
Thanks, Siva. I guess my question is, what new lessons have SIA Group learned from this fuel crisis that you will add into your playbook? If there's any call to action by government or the airline industry to, you know, work together. Thanks.
I would just say that the crisis is still ongoing, and I think the lessons, what lessons we'll learn eventually from this crisis is something we'll definitely look into.
Thank you. Any other questions? Oh, sorry.
Sorry, good morning. I think I'm sitting in the wrong place. I'm Suen from The Straits Times. I have a question on increase in airfares. I think you mentioned the current increases in airfares still do not cover the increase in jet fuel costs. Can customers expect airfares to continue increasing for the rest of the year? Thank you.
Airfares are a function of demand and supply. You know, we have to watch the market. We want to price at a point that customers are still willing to buy. We will have to watch the market carefully.
Thank you. Any last questions? Thank you.
What kind of resources, or for example, manpower is SIA providing to Air India in your support? Thank you.
We currently have two colleagues who have been seconded to Air India. One is the COO in Air India. The other one is the Chief of Engineering. Like I mentioned earlier, where supports are required, especially when we discuss with them, we will do our best to help them with whatever operational or requirements that they need in their transformation effort. We'll do what we can to assist them.
Thank you. There are a few more online questions from Danny and Deepak. Those have been answered already. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Have a good day and a good week, and we'll see you at our half-year results briefing. Thank you.