Empty seats: Singapore Airlines' passenger carriage dropped 6.8%

Poor demand prompted a system-wide decline.

The country’s flag carrier went through a slightly turbulent month of August as its passenger load factor (PLF) dropped 5.2ppt to 79.7%.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) revealed its passenger carriage in August 2016 went down 2.9% compared to last year, while capacity inched up 3.6%.

“Singapore Airlines' systemwide passenger carriage declined by 6.8% against a 0.3% decrease in capacity year-on-year. Consequently, PLF fell 5.6 percentage points to 80.0%.” SIA said.

SIA admitted it’s moving towards headwinds as PLF declined across all regions due to softer passenger demand. The competitive landscape continues to remain challenging and promotional activities will continue in relevant markets.

Meanwhile, SilkAir’s systemwide passenger carriage dove 2.0% YoY, compared to a 5.3% expansion in capacity. PLF also dipped 5.2 percentage points to 71.0%.

“Growth in passenger carriage for East Asia and Pacific, and West Asia regions lagged behind capacity growth, resulting in a 5.6 percentage point and 4.1 percentage point decrease in PLF respectively.

Scoot's systemwide passenger carriage rose 52.8% on a full year basis. Capacity increased 61.8% on back of additional aircrafts totaling the fleet to eleven from seven previously. PLF, however, decreased by 4.8 percentage points to 80.4%.

Tigerair's systemwide passenger carriage declined 7.0% year-on-year compared to a 3.6% reduction in capacity. PLF decreased by 2.9 percentage points to 82.2%.

Cargo load factor (CLF) was 1.0 percentage points higher, with growth in cargo traffic of 8.6% exceeding capacity increase of 6.8%.

“All route regions showed improvement in CLF except for West Asia and Africa, with demand outpacing capacity changes,” the airline added.