SIA suffers slow start to FY15 as passenger carriage declines in June

Systemwide passenger carriage slips 1.4%.

The national carrier saw a slow start to FY15 as the number of kilometers travelled by paying passengers (revenue passenger kilometers) declined 1.4% y-o-y to 8,116m p-km in June.

This is set against a 1.3% y-o-y decline in capacity (measured in available seat kilometres), resulting in a constant passenger load factor (PLF) of 81.5%. The number of passengers carried increased by 0.9% year-on-year to 1.6 million.

“Passenger traffic improved for East Asia and South West Pacific due better demand, while PLF for West Asia and Africa improved due to capacity rationalisation. The operating environment remains challenging. Capacity will be adjusted accordingly to better match market demand and promotional activities shall continue in markets that require additional support, which will likely place downward pressure on yields,” noted SIA’s report.

According to a report by DBS, this pressure is likely to keep SIA’s profitability muted for the first half of its FYE Mar’ 2015 financial year at the very least. A better second half performance would depend on stronger US and EU economic environment