By Yifan Wang

Singapore Airlines Ltd. said its net profit for the fiscal third quarter rose 11% from a year earlier, supported by higher revenue and lower expenditure.

Net profit for the three months ended December period was 314.8 million Singapore dollars (US$226.6 million), compared with S$284.1 million in the year-ago period, the company said Friday.

Revenue increased 3.0% from a year earlier to S$4.47 billion on strong passenger-traffic growth and record-high load factor for the season, the airline operator said.

The growing scale of the coronavirus outbreak poses "significant challenges" to the company, as demand for China-bound services takes a hit, Singapore Airlines said. The company said it expects to continue to make appropriate network adjustments and tighten cost management as the epidemic develops.

Since January, Singapore's flag carrier has slashed flight frequencies on dozens of routes it operates between Singapore and China, while its budget unit Scoot has suspended all services to mainland China through late March.

Globally, the epidemic has led major airlines including Delta Air Lines Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc. to reduce flights, while dealing a blow to industries from tourism and travel to logistics and trade across Asia.

Write to Yifan Wang at yifan.wang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 14, 2020 05:49 ET (10:49 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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