Singapore Airlines (SIA) announced Monday (15 February) that its year-on-year passenger carriage (measured in revenue passenger-kilometres) was lower by 97.3 percent, resulting in a group passenger load factor (PLF) of 11.3 percent, a decline of 73.2 percentage points year-on-year. The airline group said passenger capacity (measured in available seat-kilometres) for January contracted by 79.6 percent.
“One year after the COVID-19 virus first began to spread around the world, the global roll-out of vaccines in many countries including Singapore provides hope that an end may finally be in sight to the pandemic, and its debilitating impact on the aviation industry,” the group said in a statement. “Nonetheless, in January 2021, demand for air travel continued to remain depressed due to ongoing worldwide border controls and travel restrictions. Some governments further tightened measures in response to new waves of infections, and in an attempt to curb the spread of new variants of the COVID-19 virus.”
Singapore Airlines’ capacity was 75.8 percent lower compared to last year, with the airline’s network connecting Singapore to 40 metro cities, up from 39 in December. Passenger carriage was down by 96.7 percent, resulting in a PLF of 11.5 percent. During the month, SIA reinstated Dubai, Moscow, and Munich services, and temporarily suspended Surabaya and Taipei. Flights to the United States of America saw an increase in frequencies.
SilkAir’s passenger carriage dropped 98.4 percent year-on-year, against a 96 percent cut in capacity. This led to a 47.5 percentage point decline in PLF to 32.1 percent. SilkAir continued to operate flights to Chongqing, Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, Male, Medan, and Phnom Penh, while Cebu was temporarily suspended from the network.
Scoot’s passenger carriage reduced 99 percent year-on-year against a contraction in capacity of 88.3 percent, resulting in a 79.8 percentage point decline in PLF to 7.7 percent. With the temporary suspension of services to Manila and Perth, the number of destinations served by Scoot stood at 17 (including Singapore) in January. Operations to South Asia and Europe remained suspended.
SIA Cargo registered a record monthly cargo load factor (CLF) of 89.2 percent in January as CLF improved by 37.0 percentage points year-on-year. Cargo traffic (measured in freight tonne-kilometres) declined 17.6 percent on the back of a capacity contraction of 51.8 percent. All route regions continued to record year-on-year increases in CLF during the month.
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