Singapore fuelling growth

SINGAPORE Airlines claimed the largest share of the international aviation market to Australia in Apr, the latest figures from the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) show.

The Asian carrier accounted for 17.9% of all flights, ahead of Qantas in second spot with 15.7%, followed by Air New Zealand (11.1%), Emirates (10%), and Qatar Airways (6.8%).

The year-on-year comparison was stark for Air New Zealand in particular which, for the same month last year, accounted for close to 40% of the market, with the carrier hopeful that last week’s announcement to restore key routes (TD 23 Jun) will gain some of that Aussie share back.

The BITRE report also showed the Sydney-Singapore route was the most subscribed for the month, recording 96,554 passengers, ahead of Melbourne-Singapore (81,418) and Sydney-Dubai (52,957).

The total number of passengers carried on international flights for Apr was 1.17 million, a sizable increase on the same month last year (112,938), but still down 66.7% on Apr 2019 volumes.

Cumulative passenger traffic for the year ending Apr 2022 managed to tick above the four million mark, but still represented a 90.4% decrease on the year ending Apr 2019 (41.888 million).

Australian airlines collectively accounted for 22.4% of total passenger carriage in Apr, slightly improving on their share in 2021 (20.1%), but again below where they were at in 2019 (33.4%).

One in 10 flights were operated by low-cost airlines for the month, namely AirAsia X, Jetstar and Scoot, doubling volumes from Apr last year (4.5%), but still below pre-pandemic levels, which was 14.3% in 2019.