SINGAPORE (Dec 16): For the month of November, Singapore Airlines Group (SIA) reported a 2.8 percentage point increase in overall passenger load factor (PLF), which was attributable mainly to improved PLF figures across all its airline segments.
In a regulatory filing on Monday, the group noted that overall passenger carriage grew 8.3% from the previous year, outpacing capacity growth of 4.4%.
The group’s flagship carrier, Singapore Airlines, saw a 2.8 percentage point increase in PLF to 84.7%. This came on the back of improvements across all its route regions including East Asia, Americas, Europe, South West Pacific and West Asia and Africa.
Regional carrier Silkair booked an increase of 3.6 percentage points to 80.5%. However, its systemwide passenger carriage decreased by 4.5% as capacity contracted by 8.7% on the back of the transfer of 10 routes to budget carrier Scoot. However, a strong growth in capacity on Australia routes was matched by growth in traffic, reported SIA.
Scoot registered a 3.5 percentage point improvement in its PLF figure to 86.7% as passenger carriage increased by 5.5% against capacity expansion of 1.1%. Segmentally, an improved performance for Southeast Asia and capacity rationalisation on weaker Chinese routes contributed to the stronger PLF contribution in East Asia. The airline’s West Asia segment recorded an improvement in demand, while its Rest of the World segment benefitted from stronger connecting traffic.
However, the improvements across all airlines was partially offset by the group’s cargo segment, which reported a 3.9 percentage point decline in cargo load factor (CLF) as the 7.2% decline in cargo traffic outpaced capacity contraction of 1.5%. All route regions had reportedly registered declines in CLF except the Americas region.
Shares in Singapore Airlines closed one cent lower, or 0.1% down, at $9.12 on Monday.
