SINGAPORE (Sept 16): Singapore Airlines Group (SIA) reported a 1.2 percentage point increase in passenger load factor (PLF) due primarily to improved PLF figures across all of its airlines.
In an SGX filing of its August operating results on Monday, the group noted that overall airlines’ passenger carriage grew 7.1% y-o-y, outpacing capacity growth of 5.6%.
Notably, the group’s flagship carrier Singapore Airlines saw a 1.5 percentage point hike in PLF to 86.3%, as passenger carriage increased 8.1% from the preceding year against capacity injections of 6.2%. Apart from the marginal declines in East Asia and Americas, PLF improved for all other route regions including Europe, South West Pacific and West Asia and Africa.
Regional carrier SilkAir saw an increase of 1.8 percentage points in PLF to 81.2% as its systemwide passenger carriage increased by 0.4%, against a capacity reduction of 1.9% due to route transfers to Scoot and the withdrawal of the Boeing 737 Max 8 fleet from service.
Budget air Scoot’s PLF improved 0.3 percentage points to 88.6% as passenger carriage increased by 6.1% against a capacity injection of 5.7%. PLF improved for West Asia and Rest of World, while East Asia's PLF declined as traffic did not keep pace with changes in capacity. Services to Quanzhou were also suspended from Aug 24 on the back of weak demand and aircraft resource shortage.
The improved performances of airlines were partially offset by a weaker performance in SIA’s cargo sector. Overall cargo load factor (CLF) was down 6.0 percentage points to 57.1% in tandem with the 10.2% decline in cargo traffic that outpaced the capacity contraction of 0.8%. All route regions registered declines in CLF for the month.
Shares in Singapore Airlines closed 10 cents lower at $9.15 on Monday prior to the announcement.
