Singapore Airlines' passenger load factor in July improved by 0.3 percentage point to 80.8 per cent.

This follows a 4.4 per cent growth in passenger carried, as measured by revenue passenger kilometres, against a 3.9 per cent increase in capacity.

The higher passenger load factor was due to the traditional summer peak.

West Asia and Africa route region, however, saw a decline due to the shift in the Ramadan period.

The operating environment remains challenging, and efforts to stimulate demand to boost loads are expected to place continued downward pressure on yields, said the carrier.

On the other hand, subsdiary SilkAir's passenger carriage increased 6.1 per cent against growth in capacity of 13.4 per cent.

Consequently, passenger load factor dropped by 4.9 points to 70.1 per cent.

Load factor on East Asia and Pacific routes declined as the growth in traffic lagged that of capacity increases.

West Asia routes also recorded a lower load as passenger carriage experienced a slight year-on-year decline while capacity increased.

Overall cargo traffic slumped by 9.1 per cent, even as capacity decreased by 6.7 per cent.

Consequently, cargo load factor decreased by 1.5 points.

Load factors were lower for all route regions except East Asia and Europe, where capacity changes were more closely matched with demand.

Overall, load factor inched up half a point to 69 per cent.