SIA, Scoot passenger traffic up 4.5% in June on strong travel demand

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its low-cost arm Scoot reported a 4.5 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger traffic in June, its operating results showed on Tuesday (Jul 15).

It was driven by strong demand for air travel across all route regions, supported by the start of the summer travel season and the mid-year school holidays in Singapore, noted the national carrier.

The growth in passenger traffic of the group outpaced the 3.1 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger capacity in the same month.

Passenger traffic is derived by multiplying the number of passengers carried with distance flown in kilometres, and passenger capacity is derived by multiplying the number of available seats with the distance flown in kilometres.

Consequently, the group’s passenger load factor (PLF) – passenger traffic expressed as a percentage of passenger capacity – rose by 1.3 percentage points year-on-year to 88.7 per cent, with SIA and Scoot posting monthly PLFs of 87.7 per cent and 92.2 per cent respectively. The parameter reflects the available seating capacity filled with passengers, and how efficiently an airline is filling its seats.

The two airlines carried a combined total of 3.5 million passengers, 8.2 per cent more than last year. In particular, Scoot carried about one million passengers, up 13.2 per cent on the year, while SIA carried 2.2 million, up 5.7 per cent on the year.

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“On the cargo front, demand continued to be supported by front-loading activity in anticipation of growing uncertainty in the global trade environment, though at a reduced pace,” noted SIA.

Cargo loads increased by 0.4 per cent year-on-year in June. It, however, tracked below the 3.3 per cent expansion in cargo capacity.

The cargo load factor, as the cargo loads expressed as a percentage of cargo capacity, declined by 1.6 percentage points to 56.4 per cent.

Shares of SIA closed Tuesday up 0.8 per cent or S$0.06 at S$7.36 on a cum dividend basis.