March passenger numbers soar as travel restrictions ease, with continued growth expected in the coming months
In a significant recovery from the pandemic, Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Scoot carried a total of 893,000 passengers in March, marking an almost nine-fold increase compared to the same period last year. This surge in traffic reflects the easing of travel restrictions and the increased demand for air travel as borders gradually reopen.
SIA Group reported that passenger capacity in March reached 51% of pre-COVID levels, an improvement of seven percentage points from the previous month. With continued easing of border controls, the group anticipates that capacity will grow to 61% of pre-pandemic levels by May 2022.
This boost follows the Singapore government’s decision to reopen borders to all fully vaccinated travellers starting April 1, 2022, eliminating previous Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) quotas and allowing a broader range of customers to enter with just a pre-departure COVID-19 test.
The March passenger load factor, a key metric of capacity utilisation, was 54.5%, a 15.4% increase from February and a 41.7% rise compared to the same month in 2021. This was the highest load factor recorded since the pandemic began.
On the cargo side, SIA Group faced challenges, with the cargo load factor falling by 19.8 percentage points year-on-year to 72.5%. Despite this, the airline resumed services to several destinations in Australia and Southeast Asia, and further expanded its network to 93 destinations by the end of March.
As of March, Singapore Airlines served 69 destinations, while Scoot operated flights to 43 locations, bringing the group’s network to nearly two-thirds of its pre-pandemic reach.
