SIA Group passenger traffic up 1.5% in August

SIA Group's passenger traffic grew 1.5% in August, reaching 13.8 million revenue passenger kilometres, according to a filing on September 15. Passenger capacity increased 3.5% to 16 million available seat kilometres, while the number of passengers carried rose 3.6% to 3.7 million. Growth in both passenger traffic and capacity came mainly from East Asia, Europe, and the South West Pacific, the group stated.

Group airline load factor decreased by 1.6 percentage points to 86.4%. Singapore Airlines and Scoot, the flag carrier and low-cost carrier, saw their traffic increase by 0.5% and 4.9%, respectively. Capacity for the airlines grew 3.2% and 4.6%, respectively, with load factors dipping 2.2 percentage points for Singapore Airlines to 84.7% and rising 0.3 percentage point for Scoot to 92.2%.

Cargo load for SIA increased 2.8% to 533.8 million tonne-kilometres, while gross cargo capacity declined 0.7% to 933.5 million tonne-kilometres due to aircraft maintenance. Despite weak e-commerce flow to Europe following the EU's implementation of a small-parcel duty and removal of the de minimis exemption since July 1, cargo demand remained robust. SIA's shares fell 0.3% or two Singapore cents to $6.61 on September 15, prior to the update.