While SQ may be the sole licensed carrier of Singapore, one can hardly say this carrier has a monopoly on air traffic to/from that city state. It competes with just about every major carrier in the world, and with connecting service via BKK, KUL or HGK, even more. There may be other ownership groups that might want to start up a carrier from Singapore, which of course will only plunge SQ into the very same loss-generating situation all the world's other carriers are in!