[SINGAPORE] Singapore Airlines (SIA) could get a first-quarter boost from Lady Gaga’s Asia-exclusive concerts set to take place in the city-state in May, said Bloomberg Intelligence analysts.
The shows, slated to be held during Q1 of SIA’s financial year ending March 2026, could well fuel the national carrier’s revenue and earnings growth for the quarter through tourism – especially as Singapore is the only Asian stop in the Grammy award-winning star’s Mayhem Tour.
Mega events have historically spurred the city-state’s inbound tourism demand, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts George Ferguson and Eric Zhu said on Monday (Mar 17).
Such events can provide “holiday-like boosts” to tourism, they said. “Lady Gaga’s planned concerts in Singapore over May 18 to 24 will be the popular artist’s only stop in Asia during her tour. Such mega concerts can have an outsized impact on inbound tourism demand, comparable to a holiday.”
Dubbed the Taylor Swift effect, the phenomenon – where mega events such as concerts provide huge economic boosts – was witnessed just last year when Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour shows in March 2024 buoyed Singapore’s economy and saw international tourist arrivals skyrocket to a fresh post-pandemic high of 1.48 million for the month.
“During the March 2024 Taylor Swift concert in the city… inbound flight bookings surged to levels comparable with the May Labour Day, which is observed in major Asian countries including China and Japan,” the analysts said.
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The airline ferried more passengers in March 2024 than during the peak summer months of July and August, they added. Its load factor for the month stood at 88 per cent, the highest through the year excluding December.
Beyond boosting airline numbers, ripple effects of Swift’s visit had retail sales up 2.1 per cent in March 2024, and also led to improvements in hotel metrics including overall room revenue, average room rates, average occupancy rate and revenue per available room, driven by the wave of greater tourist arrivals for the month.
“Redemption of KrisFlyer points for tickets could buoy earnings, as loyalty programmes are generally among global airlines’ most profitable businesses,” Ferguson and Zhu noted.
Queue numbers for concert tickets swelled well above 1.6 million at the pre-sale which opened on Tuesday morning for Mastercard cardholders. Three more rounds of pre-sales are lined up, including one for SIA frequent flyer programme members, before ticket sales open to the general public.
The concerts will be held across the four nights at the Singapore National Stadium.
Profit, revenue up for latest Q3 financials
In SIA’s latest business update released in February, its net profit soared 146.7 per cent to S$1.6 billion for its third quarter ended Dec 31, 2024, from S$659 million in the previous year’s Q3.
This was primarily attributed to a S$1.1 billion one-off, non-cash accounting gain stemming from the Air India-Vistara merger in November 2024.
Its revenue for Q3 FY2025 climbed 2.7 per cent year on year to S$5.2 billion from S$5.1 billion.
The carrier said then that it expects air travel demand to remain healthy for Q4 FY2025, despite a competitive landscape, as yields and capacity normalise post Covid-19.
In its latest operating update released on Monday, passenger traffic for the national carrier and its low-cost arm Scoot was up 0.5 per cent on the year for February, as travel demand eased after the Chinese New Year festive season.
The group’s performance was weighed down by Scoot, which posted a 9.3 per cent year-on-year fall in passenger traffic, while SIA recorded a 3.6 per cent rise in passenger traffic.
Its financial year ends in March.
Shares of SIA ended Tuesday 0.1 per cent or S$0.01 lower at S$6.74.
