$SINGAPORE AIRLINES LTD(C6L.SI)$
Singapore Airlines' passenger numbers have shot up over 1000% in just 12 months as the airline benefits from a reviving demand for long-haul travel.
The Singapore Airlines Group (SIA) has released its official traffic figures for May, and the numbers reflect a strong recovery in travel demand. With Singapore removing the need for quarantine and on-arrival COVID-19 tests for fully vaccinated travelers, and removing pre-departure COVID-19 tests, passenger numbers on SIA's aircraft are rising fast.
Compared to May 2021, passenger numbers acrossSingapore Airlineshad increased by 1,165% this May. Likewise, the total kilometers all those added passengers flew increased 1,043% over the 12 months to almost 6.45 million kilometers. Average passenger loads across Singapore Airlines flights in May was 81.5%, a big lift from 14.9% in May 2021.
Throw in low-cost subsidiaryScootinto the mix, and the combined amount of kilometers passengers flew totaled 7,546,400 - a 1,137% increase on the previous May. Even on a month-by-month basis, the uptick this May was impressive across the SIA Group.
"Singapore Airlines and Scoot carried a total of 1,705,200 passengers in May 2022, up 17.4% from the previous month. Group passenger capacity (measured in available seat kilometers) reached 61% of pre-Covid-19 levels in May 2022, 4.0 percentage points higher than the month before,"says a Singapore Airlines statement.
"The Group passenger load factor for the month stood at 78.2%, the highest since the onset of the pandemic. This was an improvement of 5.5 percentage points month-on-month or 63.9 percentage points year-on-year."
During the month, Singapore Airlines resumed operations toMedan (KNO), while Scoot recommenced services toNanjing (NKG).At the end of May 2022, the SIA Group's passenger network covered 97 destinations including Singapore. Singapore Airlines served 72 destinations, while Scoot flew to 46 destinations as of May 31.
The single significant drag on May's numbers was the ongoing border closures and travel restrictions in North Asia. At the time, Shanghai remained under lockdown. Pre-pandemic, China and the remainder of North Asia was an important SIA Group market. But there are now some signs of life in the North Asian market. Last week, Singapore Airlines confirmed it would increase the frequency of its Tokyo services in July, whileScoot announced it would resume flights to Tokyo in August.
But the depressed North Asia flying environment bled over into average load factors in East Asia in May, which at 67.4% was the worst across the Singapore Airlines network but still a significant improvement on the May 2021 figure of 12.9%. Elsewhere across the network, May 2022 load factors to and from the Americas averaged 87%, Europe averaged 87.1%, the Southwest Pacific averaged 83.1%, and West Asia and Africa averaged 77%. What all have in common are substantial jumps from between 11% and 21% in May 2021.
Meanwhile, being based in a small island nation with no domestic network, the SIA Group is taking the lessons learned from the pandemic and Singapore's lengthy border closures. Singapore Airlines wants to establish a base elsewhere as a kind of hedge against the financial damage caused by the pandemic should history repeat itself. There's chatter of Singapore Airlines eyeing India, where it owns a 49% stake inDelhi-based Vistara- Singapore Airlines' only significant offshore investment. But there are logistical and regulatory hurdles to establishing another base in Asia, and if the airline has a particular location in mind, they are not saying yet.
source：Simple Flying
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