SINGAPORE Airlines : C6L 0% (SIA) recorded a year-on-year, 14.4 per cent rise in group passenger traffic to 12.6 billion for January 2024, it said on Thursday (Feb 15).

Within the group, the flagship airline’s revenue passenger-kilometres rose 14.3 per cent to 9.6 billion from 8.4 billion year on year. Passenger traffic, expressed as revenue passenger-km, indicates the number of passengers carried multiplied by the distance flown.

Passenger capacity across the group rose 16.5 per cent on-year to 14.7 billion from 12.7 billion, outpacing January’s revenue passenger-km due to the shift in the Chinese New Year to February.

Consequently, group passenger load factor (PLF) – revenue passenger-km expressed as a percentage of available seat-km – was 85.3 per cent, 1.6 percentage points lower than in the previous year.

SIA posted a monthly PLF of 84.2 per cent, contracting 1.7 percentage points; Scoot’s was 89.4 per cent, down 1 percentage point.

Both airlines carried a combined 3.2 million passengers in January 2024, rising 23.1 per cent from 2.6 million in January 2023.

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Group cargo loads soared 19.7 per cent to 469.1 million tonne-km, compared to 391.8 million tonne-km the year before.

This was due to stronger e-commerce demand and higher shipments before the Chinese New Year holidays, said SIA.

This outpaced the capacity injection of 13.8 per cent from the year before, with the gross capacity for the group coming in at 860.3 million. As a result, cargo load factor, which is cargo load expressed as a percentage of gross capacity, grew 2.7 percentage points to 54.5 per cent, from 51.8 per cent.

As at the end of January, the group’s passenger network covered 121 destinations in 35 countries and territories, with SIA serving 76 destinations, and Scoot, 67. The cargo network comprised 126 destinations in 37 countries and territories, as at end-January.

SIA’s counter climbed 1.3 per cent or S$0.09 to end at S$7.23 on Thursday, before the announcement.