SIA Group passenger carriage down 97.7% in November as air travel demand remains 'weak'

November saw a 97.7% year-on-year fall in overall passenger carriage for the Singapore Airlines Group, with demand for air travel still "weak" amid border controls and travel restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19. Announcing its November operating results, the SIA group said on Tuesday that passenger carriage for SIA declined 97.3% year-on-year in November, while passenger carriage for Silkair fell 98.7% year-on-year. November saw a 97.7% year-on-year fall in overall passenger carriage for the SIA Group, with demand for air travel still "weak" amid border controls and travel restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19. SIA added four cities to its network - Brunei, Fukuoka, New York and Shenzhen - to bring its total to 36 cities. SilkAir added Kathmandu to its list of destinations. Cargo capacity and traffic were more than 20% higher in November than in October, with all route regions continuing to record year-on-year increases in cargo load factor. “Cargo load factor was 22.4 percentage points higher year-on-year as the capacity contraction of 49.8% year-on-year outpaced the 32% decline in cargo traffic (measured in freight tonne-kilometres),” said the SIA Group. The air travel bubble between Singapore and Hong Kong has been deferred "beyond December" amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in the Chinese city. An exact start date will be reviewed later this month.<br/>