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Singapore Airlines swung to a Q1 net profit of S$370m ($268m), it said on Thursday, after a fourteenfold increase in passenger traffic year on year thanks to an easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions. The figure was a major improvement from the S$409m loss in Q1 a year earlier, when more than two thirds of its revenue was from cargo. SIA's revenue tripled to S$3.9b in the three months to June 30 and its quarterly operating profit of S$556m was the second highest in the company's history. The airline has been ramping up capacity from its Singapore hub and expects to reach about 81% of pre-pandemic levels by the end of December, up from 61% in the June quarter. "Travel demand is expected to remain robust in the near term as we head into the year-end holiday travel period, with forward sales staying buoyant for the next three months up to October 2022," SIA said. Revenue per available seat kilometre, a measure combining airfares and the percentage of seats filled, reached a record peak at its full-service airline during the June quarter, the carrier said. Travel demand has rebounded strongly in all regions except East Asia, where rules remain stricter than most of the world. SIA, however, said inflationary pressures including elevated fuel prices remain a concern.<br/>

Ethiopian Airlines will take four A350-1000 twinjets, having confirmed the conversion of outstanding orders for the -900 variant. The carrier’s CE Mesfin Tasew had said during the Farnborough air show on 20 July that Ethiopian was in the “final stage” of negotiations to take the larger version of the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered widebody for the first time. With the new arrangement in place, Ethiopian now has four -1000s and two -900s outstanding from an original order for 22 A350s, having already taken 16 -900s, Airbus states. “The A350-1000 is the best fit for our dense routes, and we believe that the upsizing will be instrumental in satisfying the increasing demand of customers in our vast global network across five continents,” says Tasew. Airbus notes that Ethiopian was the first African operator of the A350-900 and is now in line to debut the -1000 among the continent’s airlines. The airframer does not give a timeline for deliveries. Ethiopian had long discussed placing an order for either the A350-1000 or the passenger variant of the Boeing 777X.<br/>