SINGAPORE - Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group on Wednesday posted a 24.5 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger traffic in October, amid robust passenger traffic across all its route regions.
Its bourse filing indicated that revenue passenger-km, which measures the number of passengers carried multiplied by the distance flown, rose to 12.1 billion during the month, from 9.7 billion the year before.
The growth in passenger traffic outpaced the 23 per cent expansion in its capacity.
As a result of this, the group’s passenger load factor (PLF) rose by one percentage point to 87.4 per cent. Passenger load factor is expressed as a percentage of available seat-km.
However, October’s group PLF was lower than the 87.7 per cent clocked the month before. SIA’s PLF for the month came in at 87 per cent, and that for its budget arm Scoot was 88.9 per cent.
Both airlines carried just under 3.1 million passengers in October, up 36.1 per cent from October 2022. This was also higher than the 2.9 million passengers they carried in September.
The group’s cargo operations posted a load factor of 56.1 per cent, higher than the 52.6 per cent from a year ago. Its cargo loads rose by 7 per cent on year, supported by e-commerce flows and freighter charters. The growth in cargo loads outpaced the 0.3 per cent expansion in its cargo capacity.
As the group calibrated its network in response to passenger demand, its main carrier ceased operations to Vancouver, Canada, in October. Scoot resumed services to Kunming, China.
As at end-October 2023, the group’s passenger network covered 119 destinations in 35 countries and territories. Its cargo network had 121 destinations in 37 countries and territories.
In a separate announcement on Wednesday, SIA announced its entry into a codeshare partnership with Philippine Airlines (PAL) to increase flight options between the Philippines and Singapore, as well as to other international destinations.
The codeshare starts on SIA and PAL flights between Singapore and Manila in the fourth quarter of the 2023-2024 financial year, subject to regulatory approval. Under this partnership, SIA will also codeshare on PAL’s flights from Manila to 27 destinations within the Philippines, including Cebu, Kalibo and Puerto Princesa.
On its part, PAL will codeshare on SIA’s flights to six destinations in Europe – Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Milan, Paris, Rome and Zurich. The European codeshare sectors will be rolled out across PAL and SIA sales channels and among travel agents in the coming weeks, said the airlines.
SIA shares closed at $6.22, up two cents or 0.3 per cent, on Thursday. THE BUSINESS TIMES
