The milestone comes as the airline approaches its golden anniversary of operations in New Zealand, having started services in 1976 with limited services via Australia to Singapore.
He said SIA’s results reflected the airline’s commitment to its core pillars of product, service, and network. With one of the youngest fleets in the industry - an average aircraft age of seven years - Singapore Airlines has ensured passenger comfort and efficiency.
“Our focus on long-haul connectivity and fine-tuning our schedules through the Singapore hub, with a connectivity time as short as 50 minutes, has been instrumental in delivering these results,” Robertson said.
Singapore Airlines has extended its sponsorship of the Singapore Grand Prix for another four years, and had benefited from a surge in Formula One’s popularity thanks to Netflix documentaries.
The presence of New Zealand’s Liam Lawson in F1 with a fulltime seat for Red Bull has further boosted interest.
He said the airline would be monitoring demand from Kiwis for the Singapore event on October 5. The airline has been the title sponsor of the event since 2014.
“We try to be nimble with our capacity deployment. Where there’s opportunities to capitalise on that demand, it’s definitely something that we will explore, but with F1 being a global event there are lots of people that want to come from other places too.”
Singapore Airlines has had a deep commercial relationship with Air New Zealand and the Kiwi airline had two flights a day over that period.
“’There’s a lot of attractions year-round but I think having a signature event in Singapore maximises exposure to a global audience.”
The airline has also announced plans to retrofit its Airbus A350 long-haul fleet, set to roll out new cabins over the next two years. This includes new business class seating and improved economy options. The long-delayed Boeing 777-9s would also have the new product teased last year.
SIA is about to relaunch its food across the business.
Its “Book the Cook” programme in Business Class had been expanded in New Zealand with demand for premium beef and salmon dishes growing to complement its ever-popular lobster thermidore.
Loads in premium cabins out of New Zealand continue to run higher than pre-pandemic.
SIA continues to expand its network, with Southeast Asia and Europe leading demand. Destinations like Vietnam, Thailand, and Sri Lanka are drawing increasing interest from New Zealand travellers.
A new partnership with low-cost subsidiary Scoot will bring direct flights to Vienna starting June 2025, offering travellers from New Zealand a one-stop connection to Austria.
The airline last November said its earnings would stay under pressure despite robust travel demand in the current half of the year, while it reported a profit fall reflecting stiff market competition coupled with rising costs.
Figures from the International Air Transport Association covering 350 airlines found total full-year traffic in 2024 (measured in revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) rose 10.4% compared to 2023.
This was 3.8% above pre-pandemic (2019) levels.
December was a strong finish to the year with overall demand rising 8.6% year-on-year, and capacity grew by 5.6%.
International demand rose by 10.6% and domestic demand by 5.5%. The December load factor reached 84%, a record for the month. 2024 made it absolutely clear that people want to travel. With 10.4% demand growth, travel reached record numbers domestically and internationally.
On average, 83.5% of all seats on offer were filled - a new record high, partially attributable to the supply chain constraints that limited capacity growth, the association said.
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.
