The group carries 3.5 million passengers during the month, while cargo loads rise 9.4% year on year
[SINGAPORE] Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group’s passenger traffic rose 2.8 per cent year on year in September, supported by healthy demand across most regions.
In a bourse filing on Thursday (Oct 15), the group said it carried 3.5 million passengers during the month, up 3.7 per cent from a year earlier.
Passenger capacity increased at a slightly faster pace of 3.1 per cent, resulting in the group’s passenger load factor slipping 0.3 percentage point to 86.8 per cent.
This was nevertheless an improvement from August, when the group’s passenger load factor fell 1.6 percentage points year on year to 86.4 per cent. Passenger traffic had grown 1.5 per cent that month, against a 3.5 per cent increase in capacity.
For SIA, passenger traffic grew 3 per cent, while capacity rose 3.6 per cent. Its passenger load factor fell 0.5 percentage point to 85.7 per cent, even as the airline carried 3.6 per cent more passengers at 2.3 million.
Load factors declined year on year in East Asia, Europe and South West Pacific, as capacity growth outpaced traffic. They rose in the Americas as well as West Asia and Africa.
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Scoot, meanwhile, recorded a 0.7 percentage point increase in passenger load factor to 90.8 per cent, as traffic growth of 2.2 per cent outpaced the 1.4 per cent rise in capacity.
The budget carrier transported 1.2 million passengers, 3.8 per cent more than a year earlier.
The group’s cargo loads grew more strongly during the month, rising 9.4 per cent year on year, ahead of the 3.1 per cent increase in cargo capacity.
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The increase was supported by growth across most verticals, particularly shipments of hardware for semiconductor and artificial intelligence applications.
As a result, the cargo load factor improved 3.4 percentage points to 59.6 per cent. Cargo and mail carried rose 8.6 per cent to 102.2 million kg.
As at Sep 30, the group’s passenger network covered 136 destinations in 35 countries and territories. SIA served 78 destinations, while Scoot served 84.
Shares of SIA closed 0.8 per cent or S$0.05 lower at S$6.49 on Thursday, before the news.