SIA registers sluggish cargo growth

The airline’s freight tonnage kilometer came in flat at a marginal 0.1% m-o-m growth.

SIA registered the dismal figure even as it is progressively toning down its capacity.

In a statement, DMG Research said that while the numbers have yet to show evidence of demand, it predicts the shipment rush to kick-in over the next two months.

The slowdown has been blamed on the global supply chain disruption caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

Improvements, meanwhile, were noted in SIA’s RPK (revenue passenger kilometer) figure, which grew 4.7% y-o-y, while the load factor jumped by 3% m-o-m to 79.6% owing to capacity cuts on its medium- to long-haul flights.

Likewise, Silk Air also saw capacity cuts compared to the previous month, although this was not done aggressively considering their encouraging growth in passenger numbers (RPK up by 1.2% m-o-m, and 12.6% y-o-y).

DMG Research noted, however, that save for West Asia and Africa which saw stronger loads on the Indian subcontinent flights, all other regions reported weaker load factors, particularly the developed economies.