Singapore Air says business travel is climbing its way back

Business travel is returning for Singapore Airlines, with forward bookings accounting for a similar proportion of ticket sales as before the Covid pandemic now that border restrictions have been lifted. “Since April of this year, when Singapore fully opened its borders, we have seen a strong rebound in corporate travel,” the carrier’s executive vice president of commercial operations, Lee Lik Hsin, said at a briefing Thursday. Lee was speaking the day after Singapore Airlines released annual results that showed its net loss narrowed to S$125m ($90m) in the second half through March. Demand has improved in all cabin classes as key markets—apart from China—remove travel curbs, the airline said, a point echoed by Lee. “The momentum that we are seeing in our forward bookings is coming across all customer segments,” he said, adding the airline expects strong passenger growth this year. After some gradual loosening from September, Singapore further relaxed its border restrictions in April so that fully-vaccinated people from anywhere in the world can enter without quarantine or Covid testing. Singapore Airlines’ passenger traffic last month reached 1.45m, the highest since the start of the pandemic, and 72.7% of its seats were filled. The carrier said inflation, particularly fuel prices, remains a concern. That weighed on its shares Thursday morning, when they slid as much as 2.8%, the most since Feb. 24. They eventually closed down 0.9%. Singapore Airlines’ fuel costs climbed to S$1.38b in the second half of the fiscal year as it operated more flights. Sales more than doubled in the period to S$4.79b. <br/>