The evolution of a country and its aeronautical sector have historically gone hand in hand. Many nations have used their national airline as a tool for their geopolitical and economic interests. A clear case of this strategy is Singapore Airlines, born 50 years ago and key in the consolidation of a small South East Asian state on the international scene.
Although its history dates back to a tiny regional airline company in the late 1940s, the airline was born in its current structure in 1972 when it spun off a joint venture with neighboring Malaysia: MSA or Malaysia–Singapore Airlines. The Government of Singapore saw that together with that of Kuala Lumpur it could not extend its air network and created its own company. This immediately became an important air actor in Asia and as a test it bought a symbolic plane: the Boeing 747, the best of the moment. Another fundamental point was the care of the image and its service on board. It was a matter of national pride to become one of the most appreciated and prestigious operators in Asia, to later consolidate its lines in other markets, such as Europe and Australia.
Anecdotally, Singapore was one of only three companies in the world to have had a Concorde painted in its colors since 1977, co-operating one of British Airways' supersonics for the London-Singapore express line with a stopover in Bahrain. Commercially it was not a success, although it was a brilliant marketing operation that made Singapore and its airline shine at a time when it was also opening up to the United States. Then came the expansion to Africa in the 1990s and later a long aspiration was fulfilled: direct flights with the United States. First California and then New York, high-income links that are strategic for the country's economy.
Each destination of its network and each plane that is incorporated, as was the case of the Airbus A380, of which it was the first operator, is studied to the millimeter for the benefit of the interests of a city-state that does not reach 750 square kilometers and where 5.5 million people live. The country is host to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. According to the World Bank, its economy is the most business-friendly; Transparency International considers it the third least corrupt country, and the World Economic Forum indicates that it is the most open in the world. Along with international trade and finance, one of the local locomotives is the sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, an investor in strategic companies such as the airline, of which it currently owns 22.15%.
The health crisis, which hit all the parameters of the company, kicked in until a few months ago. For the fiscal year ending March 2022, the airline posted a net loss of €685 million. The picture has changed and in the first quarter of the current fiscal year, from March to June, operating profit was 396 million euros. The black numbers returned along with the country's economic growth and the increased demand for air travel to and from its 130 destinations.
Singapore Airlines landed in Barcelona 16 years ago after considering a dilemma: return to operating in Madrid, as it did in the early 1990s, or opt for Catalonia on its return to Spain. El Prat won and the airline added two more destinations in Europe: Milan and Barcelona, as it was decided to make an intermediate stopover in the capital of Lombardy. Then the flight was direct until the pandemic forced it to be optimized by rescheduling the Italian stopover. One of the aspirations of Joan Lim, general manager of Singapore in Spain, is to resume the direct line between the two cities.
