SINGAPORE, March 24 — Singapore Airlines (SIA) will need a financial boost from the government, said analysts, who noted that the same applied to airlines across the globe as the Covid-19 outbreak continues to wreak havoc in the aviation sector.
Demand for international air travel has been obliterated as governments close their borders, but there will be costs that SIA will still be incurring even though it has grounded almost all its flights, they noted.
Yesterday, the national carrier said that it will cut 96 per cent of the capacity that had been originally scheduled up to the end of April, as border controls tighten worldwide due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Later yesterday, SIA announced cost-cutting measures affecting about 10,000 staff including voluntary and compulsory no-pay leave, furloughs, and further pay cuts to senior management staff members. The airline did not place an estimated value on the cuts in a staff memo seen by TODAY.
The announcements came as SIA's share price sank 11 per cent yesterday to S$5.36 (RM16.35), its lowest level in more than 15 years.
To help SIA through these difficult times, analysts expect the Government here to provide support in the form of a working capital loan or subsidies, but not to the extent of a bailout, as was suggested in a commentary in The Straits Times on Thursday.
According to SIA’s third quarter earnings report, the airline had a cash flow of S$1.57 billion in the quarter ending December 31.
In a report issued yesterday before the SIA announcements, UOB Kay Hian’s aviation analyst, K. Ajith, said that the carrier needed “backstop liquidity” of at least S$5 billion by June.
In an earlier report, he estimated that SIA’s revenue could decline by S$1 billion in the current fourth quarter ending March 31.
This latest move by SIA to ground almost all its flights would further hit their declining revenue.
Brendan Sobie, independent analyst of Sobie Aviation, estimates that the revenue for passenger services, which accounts for their largest business segment, could decline by as much as the cut in capacity.
However, he pointed out that SIA also has other revenue streams such as those from transporting cargo.
Analysts told TODAY that they are not able to estimate the extent to which SIA’s current cash and bank balance of S$1.57 billion could help the company through the crisis.
For one thing, SIA does not publicly disclose its daily burn rate, unlike other airlines, pointed out Sobie. The burn rate is the cash used just to keep operating regardless of income.
CIMB economist Song Seng Wun also said it’s hard to estimate how much operating costs would be going down since almost all of its flights are grounded.
“How much manpower you need to preserve is a guesstimate. And you cannot tie that to how much they have spent before. Nobody has grounded almost an entire fleet before… How many employees to retain, these are variables that will play a role in burning through that cash,” he said.
While revenue growth has slumped, analysts pointed out that SIA, like other airlines, still has recurring costs.
As airlines are heavily asset-based companies, a lot of their operating costs are fixed, said Mr Sobie.
They have to continue financing aircraft that they have leased or rented.
Other costs such as maintaining the aircraft, reserving their place on a flight route with a particular timing, as well as keeping pilots up to date as they continue to fly using the simulator, also adds to their costs, said independent aviation analyst Priveen Raj Naidu.
While fuel costs have gone down due to the drop in oil prices, there are still fuel-related costs as SIA hedged fuel when oil was at a higher price. Hedging is a process of locking in prices for the longer term to guard against rises. In fact, oil prices have crashed.
“Payments come in every month regardless if you fly or not,” said Sobie.
Globally, several other airlines have publicly stated that they are at risk of losing millions due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM US$215 million of their earnings could be wiped out between February and April, while Australian carrier Qantas warned that it could lose up to US$99 million in net profit in their 2020 earnings.
Others, such as German national airline Lufthansa and several other American airlines, are asking for aid for their governments.
“It is a global nightmare for the aviation industry. A lot of airlines, their existence are being threatened,” said Song.
Priveen said: “Let us not forget like medical workers and other front liners, cabin crew, pilots and support staff have played a huge role in bringing our Singaporeans home”. ― TODAY
