Singapore Airlines admits capacity grew faster than demand did in October

So in which regions did SIA planes fly while not full?

Reporting its October 2011 operating results, Singapore Airlines said, “Passenger load factor (PLF) declined 2.9 percentage points to 76.7%. PLFs were largely weaker year-on-year, particularly for the Americas, Europe and East Asia regions. Capacity grew at a faster pace than the growth in demand for Americas and East Asia regions, while Europe was affected by overall softness in the market.”

Passenger carriage, measured in revenue passenger kilometers, grew 0.7%, on the back of 4.6% growth in capacity, measured in available seat kilometers. The number of passengers carried rose by 0.2%.

As for SilkAir, capacity grew 11.1% year-on-year against an 8.0% increase in systemwide passenger carriage. As a result, PLF declined 2.2 percentage points to 73.8%. The number of passengers carried increased 7.3%. In October, SilkAir began its thrice-weekly services to Bandung, Indonesia and Changsha, China. PLFs for all route regions declined compared to the same month last year.

Overall cargo traffic, measured in freight-tonne-kilometres, saw a year-on-year decline of 1.6% while cargo capacity decreased by 1.5%. Consequently, overall load factor decreased by 0.1 percentage points. Cargo load factor increased for all regions, except for East Asia.