SIA passenger traffic up 2.8% in September; cargo demand jumps on AI, chip shipments

Singapore Airlines (SIA) experienced a 2.8% increase in passenger traffic in September, driven by strong demand across multiple regions, according to the group's filing on October 15. The airline transported 3.5 million passengers, marking a 3.7% increase compared to the previous year. While passenger capacity rose at a faster pace of 3.1%, resulting in a slight dip in the passenger load factor to 86.8%, from 86.4% the previous month.

Nonetheless, this represented an improvement compared to August, when the load factor fell by 1.6 percentage points year on year. Passenger traffic had expanded by 1.5% that month, compared to a 3.5% rise in capacity. SIA's passenger traffic grew by 3%, while capacity increased by 3.6%. The passenger load factor fell by 0.5 percentage point to 85.7%, despite carrying 3.6% more passengers, or 2.3 million.

However, load factors improved in certain regions, such as the Americas and West Asia and Africa, as traffic growth outpaced capacity growth. Scoot, SIA's budget carrier, witnessed a 0.7 percentage point increase in passenger load factor to 90.8%, as passenger volume rose by 2.2%, surpassing the 1.4% capacity increase. Scoot carried 1.2 million passengers, up by 3.8% year on year.

Cargo loads also increased significantly during the month, surging 9.4% year on year, outpacing the 3.1% rise in cargo capacity. The surge was fueled by growth across various sectors, particularly shipments of equipment for semiconductor and artificial intelligence applications. Consequently, the cargo load factor rose by 3.4 percentage points to 59.6%.

The group's cargo and mail carried increased by 8.6% to 102.2 million kilograms. As of September 30, SIA's passenger network served 136 destinations in 35 countries and territories, with 78 destinations for SIA and 84 for Scoot. SIA's shares closed 0.8% lower at $6.49 on October 15, following the positive news.