Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 (9V-SKD) arrives at London Heathrow Airport. Credit: Adrian Pingstone via Wikipedia.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has raised S$750m ($541m) in funding as part of its efforts to boost liquidity amid the Covid-19 crisis.

The flag carrier airline secured the new financing against some of its Airbus A350-900 and Boeing 787-10 aircraft.

With the new funding, SIA has now raised a total of S$1.65bn ($1.19bn) from secured financing in the financial year 2020/2021.

During the same period, the total liquidity raised stands at nearly S$11bn. It includes S$8.8bn from SIA’s successful rights issue, S$1.65bn from secured financing and more than S$500m from new credit lines and a short-term unsecured loan.

The airline has also extended all lines of credit that were due to mature this year.

In a statement, SIA said: “Together with the new committed lines of credit, this ensures continued access to more than S$2.1bn in committed liquidity.”

As Covid-19 related travel curbs forced the airlines to ground most of their fleet, the carriers started exploring all channels to mitigate liquidity crunch.

Earlier, in a similar initiative, Australia’s Qantas Airways raised funds against its aircraft fleet, reported Reuters. In addition, Hong Kong’s flag carrier Cathay Pacific divested six Boeing 777-300ERs to BOC Aviation to raise money.

In March, SIA reduced its originally scheduled capacity by 96%. The decision grounded 138 out of 147 SIA and SilkAir aircraft while the company’s low-cost unit Scoot also grounded 47 of its 49 units.

SIA also reported its first-ever annual loss for the year that ended on 31 March.