SINGAPORE (Yosefardi) – In July 2013, Singapore Airlines’ systemwide passenger carriage (measured in revenue passenger kilometers) grew 4.4% year-on-year against a 3.9% increase in capacity (measured in available seat kilometers).
As a result, passenger load factor (PLF) improved by 0.3 percentage points to 80.8%. The number of passengers carried increased by 3.7% to 1.6 million.
The higher passenger load factor was due to the traditional summer peak. On the other hand, West Asia and Africa route region registered 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.
SilkAir’s systemwide passenger carriage increased 6.1% year-on-year against 13.4% growth in capacity. As a result, PLF was 4.9 percentage points lower at 70.1%. PLF on East Asia and Pacific routes declined as the growth in traffic lagged that of capacity increases. West Asia routes also recorded a lower PLF as passenger carriage experienced a slight year-on-year decline while capacity increased.
Overall cargo traffic (measured in freight-tonne-kilometres) was 9.1% lower year-on-year, while cargo capacity decreased by 6.7%. Consequently, cargo load factor (CLF) decreased by 1.5 percentage points. Load factors were lower for all route regions except East Asia and Europe, as capacity changes were more closely matched with demand.