SIA Group's passenger traffic increases 'significantly' in April following eased Covid-19 travel measures

SINGAPORE — A total of 1,452,500 passengers flew on Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Scoot in April, a 13-fold increase from a year ago following the removal of vaccinated travel lane arrangements at the start of last month.

SIA’s latest operating results released on Tuesday (May 17) showed that the two airlines carried around 1,216 per cent more passengers in April compared to a year ago. The number of passengers in April is also up 62.7 per cent from March 2022.

The demand for air travel increased significantly last month as Singapore eased travel restrictions, allowing visitors to enter the country quarantine-free and without on-arrival Covid-19 tests, said SIA Group. The pre-departure Covid-19 test requirement was also removed on April 26.

“Many key markets for the SIA Group also further relaxed their border control measures,” said the Group.

Passenger capacity continued to climb steadily, from 51 per cent of pre-Covid levels in March to 57 per cent in April. The company said last month it expected passenger capacity to hit 61 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by May.

The group passenger load factor was 72.7 per cent, an 18.2 percentage point improvement from the month before. The figure is also up 59 percentage points from a year ago.

The month-on-month jump was the highest since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, said SIA Group, adding that the passenger load factor improved across all route regions for both airlines.

Cargo load factor fell 25.4 percentage points year-on-year to 66.7 per cent in April. Cargo loads declined 2.1 per cent as the demand for cargo was affected by the pandemic controls in China.

In April, the SIA group resumed services to Davao and Cebu in the Philippines, while Hat Yai and Kota Kinabalu were added back to Scoot's list of destinations.

As of end-April, the Group passenger network covered 95 destinations including Singapore. SIA served 71 destinations while Scoot flew to 45 destinations. CNA