Singapore Airlines Group carried 100,100 passengers in March, down nearly 91% year on year amid coronavirus-related travel restrictions.
The group’s passenger capacity, as measured in available seat-kilometres, was cut by 56%, while revenue passenger-kilometres dropped 90% year on year. Passenger load factor fell 45 percentage points to 13% as compared to March 2020.
Mainline carrier Singapore Airlines’ passenger numbers declined by 88% year on year to 78,800.
The airline’s passenger capacity was cut by 51%, while revenue passenger-kilometres plunged 89%. Passenger load factor declined 43 percentage points to 13%.
At end-March, the airline expanded its network to 47 destinations, up from February’s 41, including Singapore. The increase was largely due to the transfer of narrowbody destinations such as Chongqing, Male, Phnom Penh and Phuket from SilkAir to Singapore Airlines, as well as the reintroduction of flights to Tokyo Haneda and the opening of sales to Yangon.
SilkAir’s revenue passenger-kilometres fell 93%, against a 92% cut in capacity, leading to a 4.2 percentage point decline in passenger load factor to 48%. It carried 8,700 passengers during the month, a decrease of 92%.
Low-cost carrier Scoot’s capacity was cut by 76%, whereas revenue passenger-kilometres fell by 96%. This resulted in a 58 percentage point drop in passenger load factor to 12%.
Scoot served 18 destinations including Singapore as at end-March, with the reinstatement of flights to Perth. Operations to South Asia and Europe remained suspended.
SIA Cargo’s freight traffic, as measured in freight tonne-kilometres, grew by 0.8% on the back of a capacity contraction of 26%.
Cargo load factor increased 24 percentage points to 92% during the month versus March 2020.
At the end of March, the group says its capacity reached 23% of pre-Covid-19 levels, lower than its earlier expectation of around 25%. The group’s passenger capacity is expected to be around 27% of pre-Covid-19 levels by June, based on modest growth of the passenger network in the coming months.
Singapore Airlines will reinstate services to Denpasar from May and Scoot will reintroduce services to Macau in April, and Cebu, Clark, Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu in May. The progressive transfer of narrowbody routes from SilkAir to Singapore Airlines is on track, the group notes.
