SIA passenger load factor up 0.3ppt to 81.2% in February

Passenger carriage rose 8.8%, slightly outpacing capacity injection of 8.3%.

Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) Group passenger load factor (PLF) rose 0.3ppt YoY to 81.2%. Passenger carriage (measured in revenue passenger-kilometres) increased 8.8% compared to last year, slightly outpacing capacity (measured in available seat-kilometres) injection of 8.3%.

Cargo load factor (CLF) was 6.8ppt lower, with cargo traffic (measured in freight tonne-kilometres) declining 15.1% against a 4.6% contraction in capacity. All route regions registered declines in CLF.

SIA’s PLF improved 0.5ppt to 80.4%. Passenger carriage rose 9.1% compared to last year, ahead of capacity growth of 8.5%.

PLF improved for all route regions except for East Asia and the Americas due to the shift of outbound Lunar New Year traffic from February 2018 to end-January 2019, and significant capacity growth respectively, the group said.

“Competition in several markets is aggressive, but we continue efforts to maintain comparable RASK (revenue per available seat-kilometres) to last year,” it added.

SilkAir’s systemwide passenger carriage increased by 4.6%, against a capacity reduction of 0.4%. Consequently, PLF increased 3.7ppt to 77.8%, with improvements across all route regions.

Scoot recorded passenger carriage growth of 9.0%, trailing growth in capacity of 10.9% which led to a 1.6ppt decline in PLF to 85.3%. PLF improved for West Asia, whilst East Asia and Rest of World recorded declines as traffic did not keep pace with the increases in capacity.