SIA's passenger load factor up 1.6ppt to 84% in July

But striking a balance between passenger volume and yield remains a challenge.

Singapore Airlines Group's (SIA Group) passenger load factor (PLF) rose 1.5 ppt to 83.6% in July.

According to its operating results report, passenger carriage rose 4.1% compared to last year, outpacing capacity expansion of 2.2%.

Meanwhile, SIA's PLF rose 1.6 ppt. Passenger carriage rose 1.2% compared to last year, against a 0.8% decrease in capacity.

This was a result of the restructuring of its Americas network, higher demand on European routes, and capacity adjustments in West Asia and Africa.

However, PLF declined for the South West Pacific route region as passenger carriage growth could not keep pace with capacity injection.

"The operating landscape remains challenging with ongoing efforts to maintain the right balance between passenger volume and yield," SIA said.

Here's more from SIA:

SilkAir’s systemwide passenger carriage grew 19.8% year-on-year, surpassing capacity growth of 12.7%. Consequently, PLF improved by 4.5 percentage points to 76.6%. Strong growth in demand was seen in India, China and South East Asia.

Scoot recorded an 11.8% year-on-year increase in systemwide passenger carriage, slightly below capacity expansion of 12.0%. Consequently, PLF declined by 0.2 percentage points to 84.6%.

PLF declined in West Asia region as demand on routes to Bangladesh, and most of India, was affected by increasing competition. Elsewhere, growth in demand substantially matched capacity injections, with traffic in South East Asia being relatively strong.

The Athens route registered a load factor of 83.1%.

Overall cargo load factor (CLF) was 2.5 percentage points higher with growth in cargo traffic (measured in freight tonne-kilometres) of 3.8% against capacity reduction of 0.4%. CLF improved across all regions except Americas, as demand outpaced capacity changes.