SIA Group's January load factor up 1.4ppt to 84.5%

The year-end holidays boosted the PLF of all of its airlines.

SIA Group airlines' (SIA) passenger load factor (PLF) rose by 1.4 percentage points (ppt) YoY to 84.5% in January, an announcement revealed. Its passenger carriage also grew 7.9% YoY, outpacing capacity growth of 6.1%.

In contrast, cargo load factor (CLF) dipped 5.9 ppt, as the 13.9% decline in cargo traffic outpaced the capacity contraction of 4.1%. All route regions registered declines in CLF.

As for its airlines, Singapore Airlines’ PLF inched up 0.6 ppt YoY to 84.1%, whilst its passenger carriage rose 7.2% YoY against capacity injection of 6.5%. The year-end holidays lead to stronger returning traffic, which improved PLF for Americas, Europe, and West Asia and Africa.

However, PLF for East Asia remained flat, whilst PLF for South West Pacific declined marginally as capacity growth outstripped demand.

SilkAir's PLF grew 4.4 ppt to 79.6%, driven by the slip in its system-wide passenger carriage by 2.7% as capacity contracted by 8%. The transfer of eleven destinations to Scoot, Busan to Singapore Airlines and the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet from service affected SilkAir's capacity.

Lastly, Scoot's PLF edged up 3.1 ppt to 87.5% as passenger carriage increased by 13.5% against capacity expansion of 9.4%. It saw improved performance for Southeast Asia and North Asia due to the Lunar New Year festive season, leading to a higher PLF in East Asia. West Asia recorded improvement in demand, whilst Rest of World benefited from stronger connecting traffic. Services to Wuhan were suspended from 23 January 2020 following the COVID19 outbreak.