Singapore Airlines' (SIA's) passenger carriage, as measured in revenue passenger kilometers), in October rose 1.1 per cent on the back of 0.2 per cent growth in capacity.

Consequently, passenger load factor grew by 0.7 percentage point to 78.5 per cent.

The actual number of passengers carried increased by 3.1 per cent.

Passenger load factor improved for all route regions, except South West Pacific and West Asia & Africa, which registered declines as both regions continue to absorb fresh capacity.

The operating environment remains challenging, said SIA.

Efforts to stimulate demand to boost loads are expected to place continued downward pressure on yields.

Subsidiary SilkAir's passenger carriage increased 1.1 per cent against 12.7 per cent growth in capacity.

As a result, passenger load factor was 7.6 percentage points lower at 66.7 per cent.

Passenger carriage lagged behind capacity growth for both route regions, resulting in declines in the load factor.

Overall cargo traffic, as measured in freight-tonne-kilometres, was 3.5 per cent lower year-on-year, while cargo capacity decreased by 3 per cent.

Consequently, cargo load factor fell by 0.3 point.

Load factors were higher for all route regions, except for East Asia and South West Pacific where the increase in cargo traffic was outpaced by the increase in cargo capacity.

Overall load factor inched up 0.1 point to 69.2 per cent.