Turbulent 2024, but SIA chief says airline can navigate challenges ahead

Key pillars include leveraging twin-carrier portfolio, investing in digital innovation

- Ven Sreenivasan

The year 2024 is coming to a close, and for Singapore Airlines (SIA), it has been a year of flying high before encountering turbulence.

In January, its KrisFlyer rewards programme crossed eight million members; in March, it carried out the biggest revamp of its premium economy class, now in its 10th year.

The good news was capped on May 15, when SIA posted a record $2.7 billion full-year profit for the year ended March and rewarded its staff with eight months' bonus.

Five days later, Flight SQ321 with 211 passengers and 18 crew on board hit severe turbulence, resulting in one death and dozens injured. It was the first such fatality on a commercial flight in nearly three decades.

Financially, despite the industry seeing robust demand for air travel, SIA's earnings as reported later in the year were hit by increasing competition and rising costs. Net profit for the six months to end-September tumbled 48.5 per cent to $742 million.

SIA shares, which reached a 2024 high of $7.37 on Feb 20, closed at $6.31 on Nov 29 as analysts and investors take stock of where the airline is now headed.

In an exclusive interview with The Straits Times, chief executive Goh Choon Phong said his team has a strong strategy to navigate the challenges ahead.

Its key pillars include leveraging its twin-carrier portfolio, enhancing its brand and product offerings, growing airline partnerships to expand its coverage, investing aggressively in digital innovation, and ensuring it maintains a strong balance sheet. The latest piece in this jigsaw is its multi-hub strategy.

"We were very clear that we had to be first off the block when the recovery came," he said. "And as we emerged from the crisis, we had to continue to be a leader in the industry. We stuck to the three pillars of our brand promise – the product, the service and the network."