Singapore Airlines will suspend services to Canberra, Dusseldorf, Stockholm, and Wellington due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it announced in a statement on September 15. The respective stations will also be closed due to the decision.
For the month of August, the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group reported a decline of 67.7 percentage points y-o-y to 18.8% due to a drop in overall passenger carriage, which fell by 98.3%.
Group passenger capacity plunged 92.2% y-o-y due to curtailed demand for air travel amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and border closures.
SIA’s capacity was 90.5% lower y-o-y, with a reduced network connecting Singapore to 28 cities, three more than in July with the addition of Istanbul, Milan, and Perth.
Passenger carriage declined 97.9% y-o-y resulting in a passenger load factor of 19.0%.
SilkAir’s passenger load factor was 33.8%, due to a 99.3% y-o-y drop in passenger carriage. The airline also suffered a 98.4% cut in capacity.
In the same month, SilkAir added Cebu to its list of destinations and continued to operate flights to Chongqing, Kuala Lumpur, and Medan.
Scoot’s passenger carriage for the month declined 99.3% y-o-y against a contraction in capacity of 96.1%. This led to a passenger load factor of 15.8%.
The low-cost carrier added Clark, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, and Tianjin to its existing network, upping the number of cities served to 13. Operations to West Asia and Europe remained suspended.
Cargo load factor was 24.7 percentage points higher y-o-y as the capacity contraction of 58.8% year-on-year outpaced the 40.9% decline in cargo traffic.
All route regions recorded y-o-y increases in cargo load factor in August 2020.
On September 10, the group announced the reduction of 2,400 staff due to the halt in air travel following the Covid-19 pandemic.
See: SIA group to cut around 2,400 staff, CEO Goh says decision was 'hardest and most agonising'
Shares in SIA closed 1 cent higher, or 0.3% up, at $3.52 on September 15.
