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Singapore Airlines has won the "World's Best Airlines" award for the nth time. Congratulations are well-deserved. But this has drawn Singaporeans critical of SIA's involvement in Air India to throw caustic remarks like "Wah now got so much money to help other people, hor."  That is a double count of ignorance - of a strategic investment and of what this award is all about.  This award measures passengers' perceptions of service, product and experience. Skytrax actually doesn't call it the "World's Best Airline". They call it the "Passenger's Choice Awards". It is a beauty contest, not a profitability race. Megan Young was crowned Miss World 2013 doesn't mean Philippines had the best GDP.  SIA can win Skytrax's beauty contest. But shareholders don't invest for beauty. They invest for returns on capital. That is not to take away the immense  marketing value of the award. In aviation, beauty is not the same as ec...

Note: There are no images of Yaogan-50(02). Feature image is a rendition by satellite trackers using what's known of the spacecraft geometry. . Chinese satellite Yaogon 50(02) was reported to have broken up, but strangely, Singapore state media knows nothing. The following timeline is most interesting. (1) 9 Mar:   The Global Network reported Chinese company MizarVision has been tracking U.S. military asset in the Iran war theatre and posting their movements on "X". (2) 15 Mar: China launched Yaogan-50(02). (3) 8 May:   US sanctions 3 Chinese companies - MizarVision, Earth Eye and Chang Guang (4) 1 Jun:     ABC reported Chinese satellite imagery of ME bases is helping Iran, US intel says. (5) 17 Jul:    Iran missile attack on Muwalffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan killed 3 US servicemen. (6) 2 Sep      Reuters report US and China are developing sophisticated counter-space capabilities, including satellites capable of appro...

By looking at the macroeconomics, the aviation economics, and aviation landscape where multi-billion dollar projects are planned many years in advance and executed over a long timeline, you will be looking at the bigger picture of the SIA investment in Air India as a visionary move. The Core Traffic Corridors to the US and Canada These are long haul flights that require aircrafts to carry substantial fuel. They are premium service because customer comfort is crucial for such long flights. SIA has direct flights to US West Coast (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle) and East coast (New York City, Newark) SQ: Aircraft: Airbus A350-900ULR SIN → SFO (14.5-15.5hrs) SIN → JFK (18.5-19 hrs) IX: Legacy fleet: Boeing 777-300ER and 777-200LR (New) Airbus A350-900 & A350-1000, Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, and retrofited 777s and 787s DEL/BOM → SFO (16-17 hrs) DEL/BOM → JFK (16-17 hrs) QF: Aircraft: Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner SYD → SFO (13.5 hrs) SYD → AKD → JFK (2...

 I mentioned in my previous post "This is just for domestic consumption, an appeasement to the rising chorus of contempt. Obviously SIA will review in accordance with milestones obscured somewhere in the voluminous stack of agreements signed two-three years ago. These massive corporate deals aren't playing masa-masa. One can drown in the schedules, tasks, and time-tables." I am just being frank on the exact reality of how these multi-billion-dollar corporate mergers actually work. The "tough conditions" being reported now are not sudden, reactive demands. They are the public execution of complex legal triggers - like Put Options, Call Options, and anti-dilution mechanisms - that were quietly locked into the original Shareholder Agreements years ago when the Tata-SIA merger was first drafted. When a highly conservative, state-backed corporation like Singapore Airlines enters a market as volatile as Indian aviation, nothing is left to chance. The framework go...

Back in 2015 there was much public argument AGAINST selling Neptune Orient Lines. "This is a national asset, why are we giving it away?". The counter official argument was essentially: "Strategic sentiment cannot override commercial reality."   Today, with SIA's 25.1% investment in Air India, the sentiments are completely reversed. NOL's losses produced a debate about whether a strategic national champion had outlived its usefulness. Air India's losses are producing a debate about whether Singapore capital should continue supporting an external strategic investment. There are basically two ways to view the investment. All those who are against the cash call look through the lens of a passive investor. Losses, poor ROI, poor track record, etc etc. A persistent expert says First Principles -- cut losses, stop-loss order. They have good experience on Phillips Trading platform and think SIA can just click a button and exit. As I explained in the last thr...

Note: The late Christopher Huchen excel at the "rhetorical demolition" of his opponents at debates. His is a specific brand of intellectual ruthlessness - where he don't just correct a misconception, but he completely vaporize the foundational logic of the person holding it. "Since when did a $500M corporate cash call require a Parliamentary debate? And where is the CEO hiding?" Welcome to Singapore, where if a government-linked company loses a dollar, it must be debated with the same intensity as a national security crisis. Here is why a routine corporate choice turned into a political drama: The Invisible C-Suite: You want to know where SIA CEO Goh Choon Phong or the C-suites are? No they have not locked themselves in the cargo haul of a 777. They are practicing the ancient, elite corporate art of "Strategic Invisibility." When a multi-million-dollar cash call is burning a hole in your pocket, the best place for a CEO to be is nowhere near ...

The public commentary surrounding SIA investment in Air India has become highly reactive, shifting from valid commercial evaluation to a simplistic blame game, and some even drifted into nationalist and racial populism. So far, I do not see comments or posts with domain knowledge. All are just noises touching on surface issues and questions. The only exception is my own previous post  India is sitting on a sweet spot in aviation industry   Traditional financial analysis is a myopic and wrong approach here because SIA's 25.1% holdings in Air India is not a straight-off passive investment. That is precisely where all the noises are coming from. Almost everyone are led to think it's all about trying to capture a slice of India's booming market. That may be true of Vistara, but the game changed in 2024. You need use the macro-economic lens to see above the noise. I see two points being pushed consistently which I like to address here: 1. SIA has a dismal poor record of inves...