Singapore Airlines FY2025/26 Results: Strong Operations, Wêk Net Profit Due to Air India Exposure
AeroMorning – John Smith — May 17, 2026
Singapore Airlines reported on May 14, 2026 its FY2025/26 results for the year ended March 31, 2026, showing a clear divergence between operational strength and pressure on reported net earnings, largely driven by its investment in Air India following the Vistara merger integration.
Key Financial Results (FY ending March 2026)
(Conversion used: 1 SGD ≈ 0.69 EUR)
Revenue
- SGD 20.52 billion (≈ €14.15 billion)
- +5.0% year-on-year
- Record high revenue, driven by strong passenger demand and higher yields
Operating profit
- SGD 2.38 billion (≈ €1.64 billion)
- +39% year-on-year
Key drivers:
- strong travel demand
- improved pricing power
- lower net fuel costs (partly hedged)
Net profit
- SGD 1.18 billion (≈ €0.82 billion)
- -57.4% year-on-year
Important: this drop is not operational deterioration, but mainly accounting effects and associate losses.
Cost structure highlights
- Total expenditure: SGD 18.15B (€12.53B)
- Net fuel cost: SGD 5.03B (€3.47B) (↓ 6.7%)
Despite lower fuel costs during the period, margins were pressured by:
- higher non-fuel operating costs
- increased capacity and staffing
- associate losses from Air India
Why net profit fell sharply (core explanation)
1. Missing one-off gain from last year
- FY2024/25 included an exceptional accounting gain of ~SGD 1.1B (≈ €759M)
- This did not repeat in FY2025/26, creating a large statistical “drop” effect
2. Air India losses (Vistara integration impact)
- SIA holds a 25.1% stake in Air India
- FY2025/26 included a full year of Air India losses
- Total impact from associates turned sharply negative
The Vistara → Air India issue: strategic difficulty
The most important structural change behind SIA’s results is the end of Vistara as a standalone high-quality JV airline.
What changed?
Vistara was:
- a premium, well-run, fast-growing airline
- co-managed with Tata Group
- SIA’s clean exposure to India’s premium aviation growth
However:
- Vistara was merged into Air India
- SIA’s exposure shifted from a focused premium JV to a complex turnaround airline group
Why this creates financial and strategic difficulty
1. Loss of a “quality asset”
- Vistara was profitable in structure (premium positioning, disciplined operations)
- Air India is still undergoing turnaround restructuring
- As a result, SIA lost a relatively stable, well-performing investment in India, replaced by a more volatile earnings contribution
2. Volatile earnings contribution
- Air India results are currently loss-making
- This creates earnings volatility through equity accounting
- FY2025/26 associate losses are estimated at ~SGD 800M–900M (≈ €552M–€621M)
3. Integration and execution risk
- Fleet harmonisation (Boeing + Airbus mix)
- Route restructuring
- Cost base inflation during transformation
In short: SIA swapped a stable JV (Vistara) for a high-potential but unstable turnaround asset (Air India).
Analysis summary
Strengths
- Record revenue (€14.1B)
- Strong operating profit growth (+39%)
- Healthy demand across premium long-haul routes
- Solid balance sheet and dividend capacity
Weaknesses
- Net profit distorted by non-operational factors
- Heavy exposure to Air India losses
- Rising geopolitical fuel risk
Strategic tension
- Core airline business = excellent execution
- Investment portfolio = high volatility due to India exposure
Investment summary
- Operational performance is strong and improving
- But reported profits are no longer structurally linear
The key drag is equity exposure to Air India following the Vistara merger.
Final takeaway
SIA is not facing an airline performance problem — it is facing an investment composition problem, where the shift from Vistara to Air India has introduced long-term earnings volatility despite strong core fundamentals.
Source: AeroMorning
