High fuel costs due to the Middle East conflict and higher share of losses from Air India pushed Singapore Airlines (SIA) into a net loss of S$76 million for its first quarter ended June 30, 2026, compared to a net profit of S$186 million in the same period last year.
Reporting its earnings late on Tuesday, the city-state’s national flag carrier attributed the loss mainly due a sharp 78.5 per cent jump in net fuel costs triggered by the Middle East conflict, as well as losses from its Air India investment.
SIA owns a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India, which reported a record US$2 billion loss for the last financial year. Air India’s owner Tata Sons said earlier this week that its turnaround could take up to a decade due to persistent supply-chain disruptions in key components, the need to overhaul legacy systems, culture, fleet, and efforts to build a larger technical and airline workforce.
SIA’s loss comes despite a 19.3 per cent rise in revenue to a record S$5.7 billion, from S$4.8 billion the year before. This came from a strong demand for travel, sending passenger revenue up 18.6 per cent to S$4.6 billion; passenger yields rose 12 per cent, and cargo revenue, by 33.5 per cent.
Passenger yields rose to S$0.112 per revenue passenger-kilometre.
The group carried 10.9 million passengers during the quarter, up 6.3 per cent from 10.3 million in the corresponding period the year before.
Full-service carrier SIA carried 7.1 million passengers, up 4.1 per cent year on year; while budget carrier Scoot carried 3.82 million passengers, up 10.8 per cent.
Group passenger load factor dipped 0.5 percentage points to 87.1 per cent, as the group’s capacity expansion of 5.9 per cent outpaced traffic growth of 5.3 per cent.
SIA recorded a passenger load factor of 86.2 per cent, down 0.4 percentage points from the preceding year.
Scoot’s load factor stood at 90.6 per cent, down 0.9 percentage points from Q1 FY2026.
The group’s cargo load factor rose 1.9 percentage points to 58.8 per cent. SIA noted that cargo demand “remains resilient across most key verticals, with semiconductor and data centre-related movements providing support”.
Of its outlook, SIA said demand for air travel remains robust, underpinned by seasonal travel flows.
However, macroeconomic and geopolitical developments, including the Middle East conflict, continue to add uncertainty to the airline industry’s operating environment.
The most immediate impact is on the price of jet fuel, the group’s single-largest expenditure item.
Jet fuel is typically priced on a lagged basis, and prices more than doubled following the outbreak of the Middle East conflict on Feb 28, 2026.
Prices remain volatile and elevated relative to pre-conflict levels, adding significant cost pressure on airlines globally,” SIA said in a statement.
“While SIA and Scoot have adjusted airfares and cargo rates to help mitigate this, these measures do not fully offset the impact of significantly higher fuel prices,” the group added. The Business Times
