The paper quoted the airline's vice-president for industrial relations, Loh Oun Hean, who painted a bleak picture of the state-controlled airline's prospects at the Industrial Arbitration Court (IAC).

Singapore Air and its pilots have been in a protracted wage dispute.

The world's largest airline by market value said its pilot salary structures are multiple, complex, tied to aircraft type and have resulted in rigidity of deployment of resources.

A survey of 29 airlines including Cathay Pacific, British Airways, Qantas, and others showed the pay of Singapore Air pilots equalled that of pilots at 23 of these airlines.

The report said Singapore Air had the lowest overall unit cost at 45.2 Singapore cents per capacity tonne km (CTK) versus 66.8 Singapore cents among its peers over the past five years.

The airline's yield-to-cost ratio was 1.7 cents, versus 3.8 cents for the benchmarked group. Its operating margin was 5.6 per cent, versus the benchmark average of 7.7 percent. And net ROE was 8.9 percent versus 12.7 per cent for the group.

The airline had the lowest return on equity among its peers and its wage costs account for 50 to 60 percent of controllable costs, the report said.

Singapore Air chalked up a 50 percent rise in net earnings to S$1.458 billion (US$963.6 million) for the nine months to Dec 31, 2006.

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