Singapore Airlines' (SIA's) overall load factor in February fell by 2.7 percentage points 66.5 per cent, as a fall in load carried outstripped the dip in capacity, both in passengers and cargo transported.

Its systemwide passenger carriage, as measured in revenue passenger kilometres, decreased 2.1 per cent against capacity reduction, as measured in available seat kilometres, of 0.4 per cent.

Consequently, passenger load factor fell 1.4 percentage points to 76.8 per cent.

The number of passengers carried decreased by 1.8 per cent to 1.4 million, owing to a combination of Lunar New Year demand shifting from February last year to January this year and softer demand for travel to Bangkok.

With operating environment remaining challenging, efforts to stimulate demand to maintain loads will continue to drive down yields.

Subsidiary SilkAir's systemwide passenger carriage increased 0.3 per cent year-on-year against 4.4 per cent growth in capacity.

As a result, its passenger load factor was 2.9 percentage points lower at 71.5 per cent.

The number of passengers carried increased by 0.4 per cent.

The change in passenger carriage lagged behind capacity growth in East Asia and Pacific Region, while West Asia region experienced a decline in passenger carriage.

Overall cargo traffic - measured in freight-tonne-kilometres - and capacity were 11.1 per cent and 4 per cent lower, respectively.

Consequently, cargo load factor was 4.6 percentage points lower.

Load factors were lower on all route regions mainly due to weaker seasonal demand that was further affected by the Lunar New Year lull period, SIA said.