SIA passenger load factor up 2.5ppt in October

Passenger carriage grew 8.7%.

Singapore Airlines Group’s passenger load factor (PLF) in October rose by 2.5 ppt to 84.4%, according to its operating results. Overall passenger carriage rose 8.7%, eclipsing capacity growth of 5.5%.

Singapore Airlines’ passenger carriage surged 10.3% in 2019 against capacity injection of 8.0%. Passenger load factor (PLF) inched up 1.7ppt YoY to 84.4%, with improvements in all routes except for the Americas where it was flat against last year. The shift in Deepavali holidays from November 2018 to October 2019 contributed to growth in loads, with efforts centred on revenue per available seat-kilometres (RASK).

SilkAir posted a 4.8ppt PLF increase to 79.7% as system-wide passenger carriage rose 4.0% amidst a 2.2% contraction in capacity, leading to PLF growths in East and West Asia and the Pacific.

Scoot’s PLF ballooned to 85.6% with an increase in passenger carriage by 4.4% against a 0.8% slip in capacity. PLF improved for East Asia as Chinese routes benefitted from the Golden Week, while the suspension of abysmal routes helped improve PLF in West Asia. The rest of the world also registered better PLF as demand for European long-haul routes surged.

In October, Scoot launched new routes to Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam in India while transferring its Kochi, Russia route to SilkAir and suspending its Male, Maldives route.

Cargo load factor (CLF) went down by 6.2ppt as the 10.3% downturn in cargo traffic outpaced capacity contraction of 1.4%.