New Delhi: Air India’s losses may be casting a long shadow on its 25.1% stakeholder Singapore Airlines (SIA) results, but the latter on Thursday said it remains “committed” to its investment in the Maharaja. Despite AI facing multiple headwinds like airspace closures and high jet fuel prices, SIA said the Indian airline is making operational improvements and “elevating” customer experience through fleet renewal.
While the SIA group on Thursday reported a 39% increase in its full-year operating profit to $2.4 billion, with revenue reaching record levels of $20,522 million, its net profit declined due to the absence of a prior-year one-off accounting gain, coupled with the share of full-year losses from Air India.
“The (SIA) Group’s net profit declined by $1,594 million (-57.4%) to $1,184 million, primarily due to the absence of the $1,098 million non-cash accounting gain recognised in November 2024 upon the completion of the Air India-Vistara merger. The swing from a share of profits of associated companies last year to a loss this year (-$846 million) was due to the group accounting for its share of Air India’s full-year losses, versus only four months the previous year,” SIA said in a statement Thursday.
Despite the Maharaja’s financial condition, the trusted airline partner of Tata Sons (which owns the remaining 74.9% stake in AI) remains “committed” to its investment in the AI Group, “which is a core component of (SIA’s) long-term multi-hub strategy.”
“This strategic investment provides the group with a direct stake in one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing aviation markets, complementing its Singapore hub and strengthening its long-term growth. SIA is working closely with its partner Tata Sons to support Air India’s multi-year transformation programme. Air India faces headwinds such as industry-wide supply chain constraints, airspace restrictions, constraints on operations to its key Middle East markets, and elevated jet fuel prices. Nonetheless, it continues to make progress in its fleet renewal and aircraft retrofit program, initiatives to elevate the end-to-end customer experience, and improve its operational performance,” SIA said.
SIA has increased its engagement with AI in recent times after the latter has been battling a series of black swan events one after the other for over a year now. Apart from the headwinds mentioned by SIA, last June’s AI 171 crash dealt a serious blow to Air India. In fact, SIA senior VP Vinod Kannan, who was the CEO of erstwhile Vistara, is among four believed to be in the running to be AI’s next CEO. The other contenders are AI CCO Nipun Aggarwal and two expats.
