CAPA: Most Southeast Asian Airlines Improved Profitability; Others Still Unprofitable

Aviation Updates Philippines - The Centre for Aviation reported that most of the Southeast Asian airlines have improved their profit in the first nine months of the year 2015. However, others were still unprofitable.

Philippine Airlines was among the 9 profitable airlines in the third quarter of 2015. In 3Q2014, the airline generated a net loss of $3 million. Photo by YBCS Plane Spotting.

In the third quarter of 2015, only 9 of 20 sample publicly traded Southeast Asian airlines were profitable. The other 11 were unprofitable including Scoot, Tigerair Singapore, Thai Airways/ThaiSmile, Nok Air, Thai AirAsia X, Singapore Airlines Cargo, Indonesia AirAsia X, NokScoot, Malaysia AirAsia X, Philippines AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia.

Among the profitable airlines in Southeast Asia are Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines, the leading air carriers in the Republic of the Philippines.

Malaysia AirAsia, Singapore Airlines, Bangkok Airways, Cebu Pacific/Cebgo, Garuda Indonesia, SilkAir, Thai AirAsia, Citilink and Philippine Airlines were the ones profitable for the third quarter of 2015.

Southeast Asian airline sector operating profit/loss (in USD millions) by carrier: 3QCY2015 vs 3QCY2014

Rank	Airline	Country	3Q2015 result	3Q2014 result
1.	Malaysia AirAsia	Malaysia	$78m profit	$63m profit
2.	Singapore Airlines	Singapore	$71m profit	$110m profit
3.	Bangkok Airways	Thailand	$30m profit	$22m profit
4.	Cebu Pacific/Cebgo	Philippines	$22m profit	$2m loss
5.	Garuda Indonesia	Indonesia	$22m profit	$32m loss
6.	SilkAir	Singapore	$15m profit	$2m profit
7.	Thai AirAsia	Thailand	$14m profit	$13m loss
8.	Citilink	Indonesia	$8m profit	$6m profit
9.	Philippine Airlines	Philippines	$5m profit	$3m loss
10.	Scoot	Singapore	$1m loss	$15m loss
11.	SIA Cargo	Singapore	$2m loss	$13m loss
12.	Indonesia AirAsia	Indonesia	$4m loss	$7m profit
13.	Indonesia AirAsia X	Indonesia	$7m loss	N/A
14.	Tigerair Singapore	Singapore	$8m loss	$20m loss
15.	Malaysia AirAsia X	Malaysia	$8m loss	$42m loss
16.	NokScoot	Thailand	$9m loss	N/A
17.	Nok Air	Thailand	$10m loss	$11m loss
18.	Thai AirAsia X	Thailand	$11m loss	$5m loss
19.	Philippines AirAsia	Philippines	$19m loss	$30m loss
20.	Thai Airways/Thai Smile	Thailand	$79m loss	$119m loss
	TOTAL		$107m profit	$95m loss

Notes: Conversions to USD are based on average conversion rates for 3Q2015 and 3Q2014.
In a few cases net profit/loss figures are used as operating profit/loss figures are not available. But these are smaller affiliate carriers and the net profit/loss figures likely are the same or similar to the the operating profit/loss figures
Source: CAPA – Centre for Aviation

In the chart provided by the Centre for Aviation, Cebu Pacific/Cebgo, Garuda Indonesia, Thai AirAsia and Philippine Airlines - 4 of the 9 profitable airlines for third quarter in 2015 - were in the red in the third quarter of 2014 but significantly improved.

Malaysia AirAsia X, Philippines AirAsia, Nok Air, Scoot, Tigerair Singapore, Thai Airways and SIA Cargo have seen their losses narrow. NokScoot and Indonesia AirAsia X that just started their operations early in 2015 have generated a net loss.

According to CAPA, Thai AirAsia X saw their losses widen while Indonesia AirAsia has swung from net profit to net loss. Indonesia AirAsia has been restructuring its operations to gain back profit while Thai AirAsia X has been struggling to access more flights to South Korea and Japan due to restrictions.

Malaysia AirAsia, Bangkok Airways, Garuda Indonesia subsidiary Citilink and Singapore Airlines regional subsidiary SilkAir saw their profits improve from the third quarter of 2014. Thai AirAsia, Garuda Indonesia, Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines swung from the net loss in 3Q2014 to a net profit in 3Q2015.