\n<\/p>\n
On the impact to Temasek and Singapore’s reserves, Mr Siow said the government does not judge Temasek on any single holding, and a portfolio of its size, over S$500 billion, will always contain investments with different risks and time horizons.<\/p>\n
In more than 50 years of operation, he added, SIA has only requested funding from Temasek during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the government provided significant support for the whole aviation sector, not just SIA.<\/p>\n
Mr Tiong reiterated the need to understand the risk limits. He also \u201ccategorically\u201d rejected racism and xenophobia, questioning why they are brought into a \u201cpurely commercial matter\u201d.<\/p>\n
India remains a \u201cvery, very complicated\u201d market, he said, citing conglomerates Adani and GMR\u2019s potential to set up their airlines and noting that low-cost carrier IndiGo controls 67 per cent of the domestic market.<\/p>\n
\u201cI note that in other aviation businesses, such as SATS, for instance, these businesses do actually have some degree of operational control, whereas with Air India and SIA, it’s a completely different story. It’s a minority stake; we don’t have operational control. So therefore we need to evaluate this investment very, very carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Siow said Mr Tiong is entitled to question whether SIA\u2019s investment would succeed, but has \u201cgone much further\u201d by \u201cleaping without evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMembers may ask difficult questions, but the claims we make must be grounded in facts, not exaggerated speculation that creates needless public alarm. Singaporeans deserve public debate that examines risks honestly, explains them responsibly, and remains anchored on truth and logic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
SIA said in a statement on Tuesday that Air India\u2019s transformation is a \u201ccomplex, multi-year programme and is not expected to be linear\u201d.<\/p>\n
The airline set up Vistara as a joint venture with Tata Sons in 2013. Following Vistara\u2019s consolidation into Air India in November 2024, SIA holds a 25.1 per cent stake in the enlarged Air India Group.<\/p>\n
An SIA spokesperson cited several challenges facing Air India, including the prolonged closure of Pakistani airspace to Indian carriers, the impact of last year’s Air India crash, the depreciation of the Indian rupee against the US dollar, supply chain disruptions, the loss of a key market due to the Middle East conflict and sustained high fuel prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, Air India has made tangible progress across customer experience and operational performance,\u201d said the spokesperson.<\/p>\n
SIA noted that Air India’s net promoter score, which reflects how likely customers are to recommend a brand, has increased by more than 70 points since November 2022. In May, the carrier received a four-star airline rating from review site Skytrax, while Air India Express was certified as a four-star low-cost airline, \u201con par with leading international carriers\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSIA and Tata Sons have both publicly acknowledged that there is still much work to be done,\u201d said the spokesperson. \u201cBoth remain committed to supporting Air India\u2019s long-term transformation programme.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
As at Jun 30, 2026, SIA had S$10.48 billion in cash reserves, comprising S$9.10 billion in cash and bank balances and S$1.38 billion in fixed deposits. SIA also has access to S$3.24 billion in committed, undrawn lines of credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny requests for additional capital will be evaluated under the group\u2019s disciplined capital allocation framework, taking into account Air India\u2019s business strategy, the SIA Group\u2019s operating cash flow, and our investment requirements for new aircraft and products,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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On the impact to Temasek and Singapore’s reserves, Mr Siow said the government does not judge Temasek on any single holding, and a portfolio of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--gCAR2UZg--\/c_crop,h_759,w_1350,x_0,y_24\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/09\/08\/jeff_siow_kenneth_tiong_parliament.png?itok=b_mApvUz","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11123,745,364,1390,1606,3275,26798,5193,9063,418,3276,2262,21740],"class_list":["post-83211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-ability","tag-affected","tag-air","tag-india","tag-investment","tag-jeffrey","tag-kenneth","tag-serve","tag-sias","tag-singaporeans","tag-siow","tag-tiong","tag-wps","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}