SINGAPORE (Yosefardi) – In June 2013, Singapore Airlines’ passenger carriage (measured in revenue passenger kilometers) rose 2.5% on the back of 4.4% growth in capacity (measured in available seat kilometers).
Consequently, passenger load factor (PLF) decreased by 1.5 percentage points to 81.5%. The number of passengers carried increased by 2.7% to 1.6 million.
Load factors were lower across all regions except for East Asia and the Americas. South West Pacific route region registered the highest PLF decline, as capacity expansion outpaced the growth in passenger carriage.
The operating environment remains challenging. Efforts to stimulate demand to boost loads are expected to place continued downward pressure on yields.
SilkAir’s systemwide passenger carriage increased 8.9% year-on-year against a 17.1% growth in capacity. As a result, PLF was 5.5 percentage points lower at 73.2%.
Overall cargo traffic (measured in freight-tonne-kilometres) was 6.3% lower year-on-year, while cargo capacity decreased by 5.6%. Consequently, cargo load factor decreased by 0.5 percentage point. Load factors were lower for all route regions except East Asia and Europe, as capacity changes were more closely matched with demand.