SINGAPORE AIRLINES REPORTS DECEMBER 2012 OPERATING RESULTS

In December 2012, Singapore Airlines recorded 6.1% growth in passenger carriage (measured in revenue passenger kilometres) against 2.8% growth in capacity (measured in available seat kilometres). Consequently, passenger load factor (PLF) improved by 2.6 percentage points to 82.2%. The number of passengers carried increased by 6.0% to 1.6 million.

PLF improved across all route regions, on the back of growth in leisure passenger traffic. In particular, long haul routes (Americas and Europe) led the gains due to strong year-end holiday travel demand. The operating environment continues to be challenging, however, and promotional activities are expected to continue to place downward pressure on passenger yields.

SilkAir’s systemwide passenger carriage increased 11.1% year-on-year against 19.8% growth in capacity. As a result, PLF was 6.0 percentage points lower at 77.1%.

Overall cargo traffic (measured in freight-ton-kilometres) was 8.0% lower year-on-year, while cargo capacity decreased by 9.0%. As a result, cargo load factor (CLF) increased by 0.8 of a percentage point. Load factors were higher for all route regions, except East Asia and Americas. CLF for the East Asia route region declined by 3.3 percentage points as demand did not match capacity increases arising from additional cargo capacity on passenger aircraft. CLF improved most in South West Pacific, by 6.5 percentage points, mainly due to movements of seasonal perishables.