SIA records higher September loads

Singapore Airlines boosted its passenger load factor during September on the back of slashed capacity.

The airline’s passenger load factor increased by four percentage points to 80.9 per cent over September 2008, as capacity was cut by 12.5 per cent, helping to offset a 7.9 per cent decline in RPKs. Total passenger numbers declined by 10 per cent to 1.36 million.

By region, the largest increase in load factor occurred on East Asian routes which saw an 8.5 percentage point increase to 76.3 per cent. The only region to see a decrease (-0.4 percentage points) was the South West Pacific, which recorded a load factor of 85.3 per cent.

Cargo load factor also increased during the month, up by 2.1 percentage points to 63.2 per cent, as cargo capacity decreased by 17.3 per cent and freight tonne-kilometres were down by 14.5 per cent.