SIA, Scoot passenger traffic up 3.7% in September

[SINGAPORE] Passenger traffic for the two carriers under the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group was 3.7 per cent higher year on year in September.

The increase in traffic for SIA and Scoot outpaced the 2.5 per cent rise in passenger capacity, said SIA Group in its latest operating update released on Wednesday (Oct 15).

But the group’s cargo business was hit by Typhoon Ragasa in the month, particularly on routes to and from East Asia, it noted.

Passenger traffic – which measures the demand for an airline’s service and is derived by multiplying the number of paying passengers by the distance they have travelled – came in at 12.9 billion for the month, compared with 12.5 billion in the corresponding period last year.

As a result, the group’s passenger load factor (PLF) increased by 1 percentage point on year to 87.1 per cent, with SIA and Scoot posting monthly PLFs of 86.2 per cent and 90.1 per cent, respectively.

The two airlines carried a combined total of 3.4 million passengers, 8 per cent higher than in the same period last year.

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SIA’s total passengers rose 4.4 per cent to 2.2 million passengers, while Scoot saw a 15.5 per cent increase to 1.2 million passengers.

Meanwhile, cargo capacity contracted by 0.8 per cent on year, driven in part by lower freighter aircraft activity due to the typhoon, while overall cargo loads decreased by 3.8 per cent.

Consequently, the cargo load factor was 56.2 per cent, 1.8 percentage points lower than the same period last year.

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At the end of September 2025, the group’s passenger network covered 129 destinations in 37 countries and territories, with SIA serving 78 destinations and Scoot serving 73 destinations.

The cargo network comprised 133 destinations in 38 countries and territories.

Shares of SIA closed 0.2 per cent or S$0.01 higher at S$6.53 on Wednesday, before the results were released.