Singapore Airlines Reports February 2013 Operating Results

LOS ANGELES, March 15, 2013 – The operating results for February 2013 are given in the table below.

In February 2013, Singapore Airlines recorded 5.1% year-on-year growth in systemwide passenger carriage (measured in revenue passenger kilometres) while capacity (measured in available seat kilometres) grew by 2.4%. As a result, passenger load factor (PLF) improved 2.1 percentage points to 78.2%. The number of passengers carried increased by 5.1% over the same month last year to 1.4 million.

Benefiting from the Lunar New Year holidays, PLF improved across all route regions except for South West Pacific. PLF for South West Pacific declined as growth in passenger carriage was outpaced by capacity increases. The operating environment remains challenging, and continued efforts to boost loads are expected to place downward pressure on yields.

SilkAir’s system wide passenger carriage increased 16.0% year-on-year against 15.3% growth in capacity. As a result, PLF increased by 0.5 percentage points to 74.4%. PLF on East Asia routes increased by 4.1 percentage points, due to increased demand over the Lunar New Year period. PLF for West Asia routes declined 8.4 percentage points as growth in traffic lagged capacity increases.

Overall cargo traffic (measured in freight-ton-kilometres) was 14.1% lower year-on-year, while cargo capacity decreased by 15.3%. Consequently, cargo load factor (CLF) increased by 0.8 percentage points. CLF was higher for all route regions, except for East Asia and South West Pacific, due to better capacity management. The decline in East Asia’s CLF resulted from a seasonal slowdown in airfreight activities across the Lunar New Year holidays.