SIA's overall passenger load factor dips to 81.5% for March

PC Lee Published on Mon, Apr 15, 2019 / 5:45 PM GMT+8

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SINGAPORE (Apr 15): Singapore Airlines reported March passenger load factor (PLF) for the entire group fell 1.4 ppt to 81.5% after group passenger carriage (measured in revenue passenger-kilometres) increased by 6.2% compared to last year, trailing growth in capacity (measured in available seat-kilometres) of 8.1%.

PLF for flag carrier SIA declined 1.2 percentage points to 81.0%. Passenger carriage increased 6.6% compared to last year, against capacity injection of 8.3%. PLF declined for all route regions except for West Asia and Africa due to shift in Easter from end-March in 2018 to mid-April in 2019, and significant capacity growth in Americas region. Efforts are in place to maintain year-on-year RASK (revenue per available seat-kilometres) in the face of increasing competition in the key markets, says SIA in its monthly report of operating statistics.

SilkAir’s PLF increased 2.6 percentage points to 75.4%, with improvements across all route regions after systemwide passenger carriage increased by 1.6%, against a capacity reduction of 1.9%. The reduction in capacity was partially due to the temporary withdrawal of the Boeing 737MAX 8 fleet from service.