Singapore Airlines' passenger carriage jumps 9.7% to 1.5m

Some good news before the year ends.

According to a release, in November 2012, Singapore Airlines' systemwide passenger carriage (measured in revenue passenger kilometres) grew 9.1% against a 5.6% increase in capacity (measured in available seat kilometres).

Consequently, passenger load factor (PLF) improved by 2.5 percentage points to 77.7%. The number of passengers carried increased by 9.7% to 1.5 million.

PLF improved for all regions except South West Pacific where growth in demand lagged the increase in capacity.

The Americas region led the growth as demand was boosted by promotional activities. Passenger yields are likely to continue to come under pressure as a result of the challenging operating environment and promotional activities.

SilkAir’s systemwide passenger carriage increased 12.2% year-on-year against 19.1% growth in capacity. As a result, PLF was 4.6 percentage points lower at 74.4%. Despite growth in passenger carriage, load factors for West Asia and East Asia and Pacific regions declined as the increase in traffic lagged the rate of capacity
expansion.

Overall cargo traffic (measured in freight-tonne-kilometres) was 8.8% lower year-on-year, while cargo capacity was reduced by 11.4%. Consequently, the cargo load factor (CLF) in November 2012 increased by 1.9 percentage points.

CLF was higher for all route regions, except East Asia, with better capacity management. CLF for East Asia route region declined by 3.4 percentage points as traffic demand did not match capacity increases arising from cargo capacity on passenger aircraft.