Singapore Airlines Group (SIA) said Monday (15 March) that its overall passenger carriage measured in revenue passenger-kilometres(RPKs) was lower by 96.6 percent for the month of February, resulting in a group passenger load factor (PLF) of 9.7 percent, a decline of 59.4 percentage points year-on-year. The airline group said border controls and travel restrictions remained in place in many parts of the world to stem the spread of COVID-19 and as a result “demand for international passenger air travel continued to be severely dampened”. Year-on-year, the SIA Group’s passenger capacity measured in available seat-kilometres (ASKs) for February contracted by 75.6 percent.
Singapore Airlines’ capacity was 72.2 percent lower than last year. The airline continued to operate a similar network as the previous month, connecting Singapore to 40 metro cities in February. Passenger carriage was down by 96 percent, resulting in a PLF decline of 57.6 percentage points to 9.8 percent.
SilkAir’s passenger carriage dropped 97.3 percent year-on-year, against a 94.9 percent cut in capacity. This led to a 28.4 percentage point decline in PLF to 32.2 percent. During the month, SilkAir added Phuket to the list of destinations served, and continued to operate flights to Chongqing, Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, Male, Medan and Phnom Penh.
Scoot’s passenger carriage fell by 98.8 percent year-on-year against a contraction in capacity of 84.9 percent, resulting in a 73.4 percentage point decline in PLF to 6.0 percent. Scoot continued to serve 17 destinations (including Singapore) in February. Operations to South Asia and Europe remained suspended.
SIA Cargo registered a record monthly cargo load factor (CLF) of 94.6 percent, which was 35.9 percentage points higher year-on-year, as cargo traffic (measured in freight tonne-kilometres) declined 27.1 percent on the back of a capacity contraction of 54.8 percent. All route regions continued to record year-on-year increases in CLF during the month.
“The growing pace of vaccinations around the world, especially in key markets for the SIA Group, supports cautious optimism for a measured recovery in the demand for air travel in the second half of 2021,” SIA said. “In the coming months, the group expect to see a calibrated expansion of the passenger network. Based on current schedules, the group’s passenger capacity is expected to be around 26 percent of pre-Covid levels by May 2021. Singapore Airlines will re-instate scheduled passenger services to Tokyo-Haneda in March, and also offer parallel services to Taipei alongside Scoot from April. SilkAir will re-introduce services to Cebu in March. The SIA Group remains nimble and flexible in managing the network, and has the ability to scale up capacity swiftly to match the recovery in demand.”
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