SIA growth is lagging, time for the CEO to step up to the challenge

Last year Changi Airport Group started releasing its monthly traffic statistics. I must admit, I generally find stories about airport traffic rather boring, so at the time I really didn't think the data was that much use. But it turns out Singapore Changi Airport's data is very useful, because it now gives the industry, and investors for that matter, something to benchmark Singapore Airlines against.

In 2010, Changi Airport's passenger traffic grew 13% to 42 million, but SIA's passenger traffic that year only grew 1.8% to 16.6 million. The SIA figures I'm quoting are based on the quarterly results that SIA releases to the Singapore stock exchange.

After doing the comparison, I got in contact via email with my colleague Shukor who is Standard & Poor's aviation analyst in Asia. S&P, like Aviation Week, is part of the McGraw Hill Group of Companies.

He mentioned in his reply email that Cathay Pacific Airways has been outperforming SIA in terms of share price. "SIA in some ways is at a crossroads as to where it wants to positition itself in the coming years and we're still hoping to hear what the new CEO has to say."

I know the new CEO, Goh Choon Phong, is retiscent about saying anything publicly. But I really do think he needs to come out and explain what SIA's growth strategy is. Maybe Cathay Pacific's share price has been outperforming SIA's because Cathay execs have been out there talking to the market about how they are growing the business.

Tags: tw99, changi, changi airport, sia, singapore airlines