Singapore Airlines

[millionairemind]

when travelling on business aqnd hence expenses paid for by company.... many singaporeans preference is to fly with SQ

on personal trips, many singaporeans preference is to fly cheap


am i right on this assumption?

Actually there is a reason for this. Singapore is the home base for SQ. For the same flight, say Economy class, SQ charges about 20% higher than say Thai airways when I used to travel for business(not sure about now though). So when you are paying out of your own pocket, many prefer Thai airways instead of SQ if both fly to the same destination as they both are from Star Alliance and have the same quality service.

My former corporate travel policy is SQ due to the safety concerns.

[winston]

My former corporate travel policy is SQ due to the safety concerns.

Lucky you. During the Asian Financial Crisis, I'm aware of a company that had a Travel Consultant to look at all business trips. This joker would send an email to the employee cc. the boss and recommend that he fly another airline to save the company x amount of $.

It got so bad that at one point that the staff had to take the train to KL from Singapore ( a 7 hour journey ? ). The company would save $300 in airfare but these idiots forgot that the salary of some of the people that were travelling, were > $1000 per working day.

Suffice to say that people got fed up of travelling and no business was brought in. After a few years, the company was sold to a competitor. ( Yes, idiots can last a few years before they are eventually discovered ).

[millionairemind]

W - That is pennies wise and pound foolish... just to save a few hundred dollars but business morale suffers.. I understand if company bans business class flights and mandate all economy class.. but to change from air to rail???

Its just like when i was working, we had a part time helper that came in once/twice a week to clean the house, iron the clothes and wash the toilets. Sure I can do it but my limited free time outside of work is better spent researching companies or playing with my boy or, I am just being lazy lah

[Poles]

when travelling on business aqnd hence expenses paid for by company.... many singaporeans preference is to fly with SQ

on personal trips, many singaporeans preference is to fly cheap


am i right on this assumption?

you're right...and also SQ is also cheaper from outside s'pore......

[millionairemind]

Published December 31, 2008

SIA may ask cargo pilots to take leave
Airline looks to cut costs, avoid layoffs amid tough business environment
By VEN SREENIVASAN


(SINGAPORE) Faced with its toughest operating conditions in five years, especially on its cargo side, Singapore Airlines (SIA) is looking at measures to cut capacity and costs, including asking pilots to take no-pay leave.

The airline confirmed yesterday that it was already in talks with pilots on its SIA Cargo fleet - which is operating with load factors which are below break-even levels - to take voluntary no-pay leave.

'The cargo business position is very weak at this point in time and the outlook for 2009 is not good,' said spokesman Stephen Forshaw. 'We have well-rehearsed procedures to address these kinds of slowdowns from way back during the Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) days.'

He added that SIA's priority now was to try all measures to manage costs and capacity, and to try to avoid retrenchments if possible.

Given the state of the global aviation industry, the challenge SIA faces is daunting.

The latest data from the International Air Transport Association (Iata) released yesterday shows November global air cargo traffic plummeting some 13.5 per cent, while passenger traffic fell 4.6 per cent year-on-year during the month.

Asia-Pacific carriers (representing 44.6 per cent of global freight) saw freight traffic fall by a whopping 16.9 per cent in November - the largest decline of any region. As freight accounts for a larger percentage of revenue for the Asia-Pacific carriers, fourth-quarter profits for the region's carriers could be badly impacted by the downturn in the global air freight market.

'The 13.5 per cent drop in international cargo is shocking,' remarked Iata director-general Giovanni Bisignani. 'As air cargo handles 35 per cent of the value of goods traded internationally, it clearly shows the rapid fall in global trade and the broadening impact of the economic slowdown. By comparison, this is the largest drop since 2001, in the aftermath of Sept 11. The industry is now shrinking, by all measures.'

SIA Cargo sank into the red to the tune of $67 million in the six months to Sept 30 compared with a $17 million profit for the same period a year earlier. The airline, which has a pool of about 300 pilots, operates a fleet of 13 B747-400 freighters, flying to 75 cities in 39 countries.

SIA is asking many of these pilots to take an unpaid 'sabbatical to pursue other interests for a while' or consider applying to work for other affiliated airlines like China-based associate Great World Airlines.

If the voluntary no-pay leave scheme does not stem the red tide, more drastic measures such as pay cuts, and ultimately retrenchments, could follow.

Meanwhile, the airline is looking to park some of its cargo carriers for a while.

The danger now is that if operating conditions for the entire industry continue to deteriorate - as they have been for the last five months - the entire fleet (which includes the passenger side) will have to face staff cost cuts.

According to Iata, Asia-Pacific carriers saw passenger traffic decline a sharp 9.7 per cent in November, following a 6.1 per cent contraction in October.

No doubt, all this is extremely discomforting for SIA's 2,000 pilots (including almost 800 expatriate pilots from 45 nations). If conditions continue to deteriorate, they face mandatory 'off-time' at first, then pay cuts. This has all the echoes of 2003, when the airline asked its pilots to take five days off per month during the Sars slowdown.

But for now, no one is mentioning the 'R' word - yet.

[millionairemind]

Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Jan 15, 2009
SIA passengers fell 7.5%
By Karamjit Kaur, Aviation Correspondent
IN A sign of the bad times, Singapore Airlines on Thursday said it carried just 1.6 million people in December - a 7.5 per cent drop compared with a year ago.

Total loads also fell as the demand for air travel slipped faster than cuts in capacity.

On the passenger side, the airline filled just 79.9 per cent of all seats accross its network - a 4.4 percentage point drop over a year earlier.

Overall load factor, with cargo included, was even lower at 65.8 per cen

[ucypmas]

Just a flavour of how things are coming along at SQ. Traditionally their 4Q is their strongest - due to holiday season etc. This year's 4Q was a washout, as can be seen in the numbers below.

The numbers represent average monthly passenger-km, Q4 compared to the average in Q1-Q3. Its a total disaser, declining 0.6% compared to traditionally being 5-6% higher. Note that 2003 is an outlier due to SARS in mid-2003.

Year Q1-Q3 Q4 Incr/(Decrease) from Q1-Q3 average.
2003 5,052.0 6,116.5 21.1
2004 6,312.0 6,758.0 7.1
2005 6,651.8 7,040.5 5.8
2006 7,189.5 7,646.9 6.4
2007 7,481.4 7,856.0 5.0
2008 7,814.3 7,765.6 -0.6

The operating numbers are likely to continue deteriorating. At this rate SQ will likely cut their dividend after this financial year, and those holding the stock currently hoping for the same payout ($1 per share) in the next year will likely be disappointed. Just to put it into context, SQ needs to generate surplus $1 billion to pay their dividends. No way they are going to continue that now that the bottom has fallen out of air travel.

In my opinion they should cut the dividend and conserve their cashflow to strengthen their balance sheet and financial strength for acquisitions. This stock may emerge as a cyclical play, but the time is not now.

[millionairemind]

Also remember that they hedged their oil at USD120/125... this will negatively impact their bottomline just as it has hurt Cathay Pacific and China Eastern.

[ucypmas]

Fuel hedging is an important operating discipline. The objective of hedging your fuel is to moderate a large component of your overall costs, and focus on other things to improve margins and efficiency. As the year progresses they will increasingly benefit from lower oil prices, as new hedges at lower oil prices come into play.

Must also say that I am not vested in this stock.

[millionairemind]

Published January 22, 2009

SIA gets first of 19 Airbus 330-300 planes
By NISHA RAMCHANDANI

(SINGAPORE) Singapore Airlines (SIA) has received the first of 19 new Airbus 330-300 aircraft yesterday, and plans to use the model to replace the Boeing 777-200 on medium haul routes to Australian and Japanese cities progressively from March.

The first aircraft will remain in Toulouse, France, to facilitate pilot training until end-January. It will initially operate between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore and Jakarta, to finalise the process of pilot conversion.

The model's full entry into commercial service will occur on the Singapore-Brisbane route in March after which, services to Perth will commence in April, to Adelaide and Nagoya in June, and Osaka in March 2010.

Powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines, the new A330 was acquired under a lease agreement with Dublin-based AWAS until the delivery of SIA's A350 XWB-900s and B787-9s. This is the first of six A330 aircraft that AWAS will deliver to SIA over the next year.

Mak Swee Wah, SIA executive vice-president of operations and services, said: 'These aircraft help fill capacity gaps in the regional and medium haul fleet prior to the delivery of the next generation of wide-body airplanes.'

SIA 'will be able to take full advantage of the aircraft's proven passenger appeal and low operating costs', added Airbus chief executive officer Tom Enders.

The A330's 30-seat business class is organised in a 2-2-2 configuration, and its 255-seat economy class in a 2-4-2 configuration.