SINGAPORE (July 15): The Covid-19 pandemic continues to cause significant impact on international air travel amidst ongoing travel restrictions.
For the month of June, Singapore Airlines has reported that its group passenger capacity was down 95.1% y-o-y.
Overall passenger carriage plunged 99.3%, resulting in a decline of 74 percentage points y-o-y to a group passenger load factor (PLF) of 12.2%.
Singapore Airlines’ capacity declined 94.0% y-o-y with a network connecting Singapore to 24 metro cities. Passenger carriage fell 99.1% to a PLF of 12.4%.
SilkAir's passenger carriage decreased by 99.7% year-on-year against a 99.3% cut in capacity, with a PLF of 36.6%.
Scoot’s passenger carriage declined 99.8% year-on-year against a contraction in capacity of 97.5%, which led to a PLF of 7.7%.
Cargo load factor registered 25.1 percentage points higher as the capacity contraction of 61.2% year-on-year outpaced the 44.1% decline in cargo traffic.
In a trading update, SIA says progress towards a global lifting of border controls and travel restrictions is “slower than earlier expected”, which has led to a continued downward revision for projections on the recovery of global passenger traffic.
The airline says industry forecasts expect passenger traffic numbers to take between two to four years to return to pre-pandemic levels.
“Our current view is that the recovery trajectory will be slower than initially projected, and will have a material impact on our revenue generation capability in FY20/21,” it says.
SIA says it expects to report a material operating loss for 1Q20/21, in its business update, which will be announced on July 29.
It adds that the completion of the rights issue in June strengthened the group’s financial position by reducing its financial gearing and increasing its liquidity.
Shares in SIA closed 5 cents higher, or 1.3% up, at $3.77 on Wednesday.
