Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) and its subsidiary Scoot (TR, Singapore Changi) raised an additional SGD865 million Singapore dollars (USD617 million) in October and early November 2022 through completing aircraft sale-and-leaseback transactions for six B737-8s, two B787-8s, and two B787-9s, according to the Singapore Airlines Group's half-year FY2022/23 results.

This was part of the Group's strategy to manage the residual value risk on its fleet while having flexibility in fleet planning, the company said in a statement.

During the second quarter, Singapore Airlines added to its fleet:

  • two A350-900 wide-bodies: One delivered in the first quarter of FY2022/23, and the other in the second quarter;
  • two B737-8 narrowbodies, having undergone cabin retrofit post-delivery. One was delivered in the previous financial year, and the other in the second quarter of FY2022/23.

The Group said on September 30, 2022, Singapore Airlines' operating fleet comprised 131 passenger aircraft (comprising twenty-three B777-300ERs, twelve A380-800s, sixty-one A350s, fifteen B787-10s, seven B737-800s, thirteen B737-8s) and seven freighters.

Scoot had 55 passenger aircraft, including ten B787-8s, ten B787-9s, twenty A320ceos, six A320neos, and nine A321neos.

During the second quarter, Singapore Airlines and Scoot reinstated services to several destinations in East Asia, including twice-weekly services between Beijing Daxing International and Singapore Changi and weekly services to Shenzhen. Scoot resumed weekly flights to Fuzhou, increased frequencies to Nanjing to twice-weekly, and resumed five times weekly flights to Osaka Kansai (Japan).

The Group posted a net profit of SGD557 million (USD397 million) for the second quarter, an increase of 50.5% from the previous quarter. This was attributable to a better operating performance of SGD122 million(USD87 million), lower net finance charges saving SGD44 million (USD31 million), and an SGD29 million (USD20-million) improvement in the share of results of joint ventures and associated companies, partially offset by higher taxes of SGD14 million (USD9.9 million).

By September 30, 2022, the Group shareholders' equity was SGD23.2 billion (USD16.5 million), an increase of SGD0.8 billion (USD570 million) from March 31, 2022. Cash and bank balances increased from SGD3.7 billion (USD2.6 billion) to SGD17.5 billion (USD12.4 billion), primarily due to net cash generated from operations, including the proceeds from forward sales. Total debt balances increased from SGD0.1 billion (USD71.3 million) to SGD15.8 billion (USD11.2 billion), mainly due to increased lease liabilities due to sale-and-leasebacks. Consequently, the Group's debt-equity ratio fell from 0.70 times to 0.68 times. In addition to the cash on hand, the Group retained access to SGD2.2 billion (USD1.5 billion) of committed lines of credit, all of which remained undrawn.