SINGAPORE (Jan 15): The overall passenger load factor (PLF) of airlines under Singapore Airlines (SIA) group concluded at 85% in December 2018 – up 0.3 percentage points (ppt) from 84.7% a year ago as well as outpacing capacity injection of 6.8% in terms of available seat kilometres.

The higher group PLF was mainly due to higher y-o-y PLF from its flagship carrier and regional full-service carrier SilkAir, which grew 1.1 ppt and 2.6% ppt to 85.5% and 79.2%, respectively.

In particular, SilkAir’s systemwide passenger carriage increased by 2.1% to 466,000 compared to 460,000 in Dec 2017 as improvements were recorded across all route regions.  This comes against a capacity contraction of 1.1%.

Flag carrier SIA on the other hand registered 5.5% growth in capacity in terms of ASK, while its passengers carried increased 5.8% on-year to 1.86 million from 1,75 million in the previous year. According to the group, SIA’s PLF improved for all route regions except for the Americas, due to significant capacity growth, while revenue per available seat-kilometres (RASK) continues to remain resilient.

Meanwhile, budget airline unit Scoot’s PLF fell 3.2 ppt to 85.5% from 88.7% in Dec 2017 despite 14.7% higher capacity. Passengers carried by the airline increased y-o-y to 951,000 in Dec 2018 from 877,000 previously. Despite an improvement in Scoot’s PLF for West Asia, the group notes that East Asia and the Rest of World registered declines as traffic did not keep pace with the increases in capacity.

Overall cargo load factor for Dec 2018 fell 3.5 ppt to 63.3% from 66.8%, with cargo traffic (measured in freight tonne-kilometres) declining 5% against marginal capacity growth of 0.3%. All route regions registered declines in CLF except Americas, as demand did not keep pace with capacity changes.

Shares in SIA closed 4 cents higher at $9.70 on Tuesday.

SIA group passenger load factor up 0.3ppt to 85% in Dec 2018

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SIA group passenger load factor up 0.3ppt to 85% in Dec 2018

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