Singapore Airlines breaks 3m and leaves COVID in its wake

Hopefully, there have been a few champagne corks popped at Singapore Airlines' headquarters this week, as after a few years of heartache and so much determined effort, the group has, for the second month, surpassed 2019 numbers. It has been a slow and steady recovery interspersed with inspired strategic routes and capacity choices that have seen the group emerge stronger than ever and with an extremely bright future ahead. In February, the Singapore Airlines Group, which includes full-service carrier Singapore Airlines and low-cost dynamo Scoot, carried 3.06m passengers at a load factor of 86.3%, close to 10% ahead of the 2.79m it carried in February 2019. Even more remarkable is the year-on-year comparison to the 2.38m it carried last year, which shows the group had increased passenger numbers by 28.2% in the intervening twelve months. Digging a little deeper into the year-on-year comparison, the results show that the Group's disciplined approach to adding capacity has paid off, with 2024 capacity, as measured by available seat kilometers, at 13,643.5m compared to 11,302.1m last year, while revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) was 11,779m this year compared to 9,782.7m in 2023. That balance is an important metric and shows how the capacity growth (20.7%) is matched by a similar increase (20.4%) in demand.<br/>