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It has been a shocking year for airlines.
For Singapore Airlines, the devastation of the global travel turnstile was exposed on Friday as the airline announced a decline in Group revenue from $ 6.691 million (-80.4%) year-over-year to $ 1.634 million in the first middle of the financial year.
This has been attributed to the fall in passenger traffic by 98.9% amid strict global border controls and travel restrictions.
The airline also lacks the national cushion of companies like Qantas, American Airlines, etc.
Although partially offset by higher freight revenue (up $ 274 million, or + 28.3%) as countries sought to restore global supply chains, this barely made a dent overall.
The SIA Group posted an operating loss of $ 1,863 million during the first half, a reversal of $ 2,276 million from an operating profit of $ 413 million last year.
“For the first half ended September 30, 2020, the Group reported a net loss of $ 3,467 million, a decrease of $ 3,673 million compared to last year,” announced Singapore Airlines.
This has been attributed to the aforementioned deterioration in operating performance, as well as to three non-monetary items.
The first of the three (for the other two, see the full release here), perhaps the one of greatest interest to airline lovers, is a $ 1.333 million impairment in the book values of previous generation jets, with 26 aircraft considered surplus to fleet requirements after completion. longer term network review.
“There are seven A380s, four 777-200 / 200ERs, four 777-300s, nine A320s and two A319s.”
The seven A380s represent just under 40% of Singapore Airlines’ fleet of 19 A380s.
Those who backed off “presumably will be from the oldest ‘original’ of the superjumbo fleet that introduced the airline’s first-class private suites.” Executive Traveler reports.
Singapore Airlines hinted at this sacrifice in July, although nothing official came out. Now that the decision has been made, frequent traveler bloggers have turned to the internet to express their thoughts.
A mile at a time Blogger Ben Schlappig wrote that “the airline just received five A380s in recent years, with new cabins.”
In light of this, he predicts that “there will definitely still be routes where there is demand for A380s, like Singapore to London, Sydney, etc., and these are markets where Singapore Airlines wants a product advantage.”
Schlappig anticipates that Singapore Airlines’ A380 service to New York will be at the black point, with the remaining A380s being used for key nonstop markets such as London, Sydney, Paris and Melbourne.
Singapore Airlines isn’t the only one sacrificing cumbersome jets, which are only profitable with a booming customer base.
One mile at a time reports that “before the pandemic there were 14 airlines flying the Airbus A380.”
Now there are far fewer in heaven; according to A mile at a time, Air France has retired its 10 A380s, Lufthansa has retired its 14 A380s (with the option to reactivate them), the CEO of Qatar Airways has said that the airline’s 10 A380s will not fly for at least a couple more years, said the Etihad CEO the “jury is still out” on the airline’s 10 pA380s that will fly again and Qantas has said its 12 A380s will not fly for at least several years.
This also comes in a context where innovation is occurring in the smaller aircraft space, with the record for the longest commercial flight ever used by a single-aisle aircraft being broken in October.
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