Tiger Airways narrows Q1 2016 loss due to absence of Tigerair Mandala loss

Tiger Airways reported on Wednesaday a narrower net loss of S$1.7 million for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2016, compared to a net loss of S$65.2 million a year ago when it was burdened by shutdown costs and losses related to Tigerair Mandala.

A year ago, Tiger registered S$35.3 million in terms of its share of loss of associate and a S$14.6 million loss from the shutdown costs of PT Mandala Airlines.

For Q1 2016, loss per share narrowed to 0.07 Singapore cents, from a loss of 5.87 cents a year ago.

Total revenue slipped 2 per cent to S$168.3 million, following a capacity decrease of 7.2 per cent. The consolidation of the fleet and network led to improvement in yields of 4.7 per cent. Load factor fell 1.2 percentage points, but remained at a healthy level of 83.5 per cent. The impact was partially reduced by higher lease income from the sublease of three aircraft to Tigerair Australia and two aircraft to Tigerair Taiwan.

Group expenses fell by 10.8 per cent to S$167.7 million, compared to the same period last year. The benefit of lower fuel cost and capacity contraction was partially offset by a S$4.1 million increase in expenses arising from changes in accounting estimates for maintenance provisions and aircraft depreciation policy. The group also recorded higher expenses as a result of USD appreciation against SGD.

Actual fuel costs fell 36.4 per cent to S$50.5 million. Fuel hedging loss stood at S$11.3 million, compared to a gain of S$179,000 a year ago.

Cash and cash equivalents fell by S$10.2 million from S$310.2 million as at March 31, 2015 to S$300.0 million as at June 30, 2015. This was mainly due to aggregate cash outflows relating to investing and financing activities of S$12.6 million, partially offset by net cash inflows from operating activities of S$2.4 million.