FLAG carrier Singapore Airlines : C6L 0% (SIA) carried 1.9 million passengers at a group level in June on a pandemic-high load factor of 85.5 per cent, the airline stated in its operating statistics filed to the bourse on Friday (Jul 15).

Mid-year holiday travel, noted by SIA, as well as summer travel season contributed to its strong operating performance for the month. It added that this was across every route region except East Asia, where travel restrictions continue to be in place for certain points.

Operating at 64 per cent of pre-pandemic capacity, the group’s passenger traffic rose 13.7 per cent over that in May.

Passenger load factor registered by its full-service carrier reached a record 87.8 per cent for SIA and helped to improve the proportion of available seating capacity filled by paying passengers at the group level to 85.5 per cent - highest since the pandemic hit.

Cargo operations registered a load factor of 64.6 per cent, 23 percentage points lower than last year. Loads rose 4.6 per cent year on year while capacity expanded by 41.8 per cent.

Last week, SIA said it will be raising group passenger capacity to 81 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by December, adding frequencies and service points to Japan, Los Angeles, Paris and India.

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SIA shares ended S$0.01 or 0.2 per cent lower at S$5.21 on Friday, before the announcement.