Losses at troubled Air India weighed on Singapore Airlines’ profits last year, even as the city-state’s flag carrier posted record revenue and passenger traffic.
Singapore Airlines reported a 57.4% drop in net profit to S$1.2 billion ($927 million) for the 2025 fiscal year ended in March. Singapore Airlines lost S$945 million ($739 million) on its investment in Air India, eroding some of its profits. The airline still posted record revenue of $20.5 billion, driven by strong demand for global air travel. Singapore Airlines and its low-cost subsidiary Scoot carried 42.4 million passengers.
“We’ve been operating in India for a long time, so we know the market and how difficult it is,” Chief Executive Officer Goh Choon Pong said at a May 15 news conference after the company’s earnings were released the previous day. But he claimed the market still held “huge potential”, citing a growing middle class expected to exceed 800 million by 2047 and new airports emerging.
Singapore Airlines first entered India in 2013 through a joint venture with Tata Sons to form luxury airline Vistara.
Tata later took over troubled state-owned Air India in 2022 and appointed Campbell Wilson, a long-time SIA executive and Scoot CEO, as chief executive. The Indian company then integrated Vistara into the national carrier, converting SIA’s 49% stake in Vistara into a 25.1% stake in the larger Air India Group.
Air India reported a record loss of $2.8 billion in fiscal 2025 despite booming outbound tourism, amid a year-long review of the airline following the crash of flight AI171 in the Indian state of Gujarat, which killed 260 people. The airline also lost its chief executive: Wilson resigned from the post in April, but he will stay on until the Air India board finds a successor.
“The airline is significantly reducing flights, especially international flights, but also domestic flights, while re-examining all processes,” Wu said. Singapore Airlines has seconded team members to Air India to help it become “a world-class airline with an Indian heart”.
Air India has also come under pressure after Pakistan decided to ban Indian airlines from its airspace after a brief conflict with India last year. The closure has forced Indian airlines to take longer routes to Europe and the United States, pushing up flight times and jet fuel costs.
The Indian rupee has also plummeted against the dollar, making fuel and other imported goods more expensive. “Most of our expenses, especially fuel and aircraft expenses, are in U.S. dollars, so those are definitely headwinds,” Wu said. (High U.S. tariffs and a worsening trade deficit made the rupee Asia’s worst-performing currency last year.)
