SIA declares dividends for first time in 3 years amid travel boom

Airline group posts record quarter, with net profit rising 51% to $557 million for Q2

- Ven Sreenivasan

The Singapore Airlines Group declared its first set of dividends in three years on Friday as it posted a record quarter amid the resurgence of global travel.

Its net profit of $557 million for its second quarter ended Sept 30 was a whopping 51 per cent higher than the first quarter's $370 million.

Revenue during the July-September quarter grew 14.3 per cent quarter on quarter to $4.49 billion.

This brings the group's first-half net profit to $927 million, compared with a loss of $837 million in the same period in 2021.

Revenue for the April-September period almost doubled to $8.42 billion, from $2.83 billion a year earlier.

SIA recorded an operating profit of $1.23 billion for the six months to end September, an improvement of $1.85 billion from the $620 million loss a year before.

It also accumulated an operating cash surplus of $2.51 billion for the first half, a year-on-year improvement of $2.62 billion.

The company declared an interim dividend of 10 cents per share, amounting to $297 million, for the half-year ended Sept 30.

The dividend will be paid on Dec 22 to shareholders on the register as at Dec 12.

This came on the back of strong travel demand, which picked up earlier this year following postCovid-19 reopenings, then accelerated through the July-September quarter.