More people flew on Singapore Airlines last month, as the number of passengers carried increased by 2.5 per cent to 1.7 million.

The passenger load factor increased 0.3 percentage point to 82.5 per cent compared to the same period a year ago.

SIA said that the passenger load factor improved across all routes except for those in East Asia and South West Pacific.

It said the two regions saw declines as growth in passenger carriage did not keep pace with capacity growth.

It added that the operating environment continues to be challenging and that efforts to stimulate demand to boost loads will place downward pressure on yields.

SilkAir's passenger load factor, meanwhile, saw a drop of 2.8 percentage points to 74.3 per cent.

Cargo traffic also did not fare better, with the cargo load factor down by 1.4 percentage points to 63 per cent.

SIA's overall load factor for both passenger and cargo dipped 0.6 percentage point to 70.8 per cent in December.

SIA shares closed 10 cents up at $10.11 today.