Pre‑Easter air surge

Singapore Airlines and Scoot carried 3.8 million passengers in March 2026, the highest monthly total ever recorded by the Singapore Airlines Group. (singaporeair.com) The group said passenger traffic rose 14.7 percent from a year earlier, while capacity grew 7.2 percent, pushing the combined passenger load factor to 90.6 percent. Singapore Airlines filled 90.3 percent of seats, a new monthly record for the full-service carrier, and Scoot filled 91.7 percent. (singaporeair.com) Singapore Airlines carried 2.42 million passengers in March, up 9.5 percent from a year earlier, while Scoot carried 1.38 million, up 25.6 percent. The March surge helped lift the group’s full-year total to a record 42.4 million passengers for the financial year ended March 31, 2026. (singaporeair.com) (channelnewsasia.com) The timing mattered. Easter falls on April 5 in 2026, earlier than in 2025, and the group said March demand was lifted by travelers booking holiday trips ahead of the long weekend. (straitstimes.com) The comparison with last year is sharper because Easter landed on April 20 in 2025, leaving less holiday traffic in March 2025. In that month, the group’s passenger traffic had slipped 0.8 percent year on year, with the company explicitly pointing to the holiday shift. (businesstimes.com.sg) The group also said some passengers rerouted through Singapore instead of Middle Eastern hubs because of the Iran conflict. The Straits Times reported that spillover traffic from the disruption was another factor behind the March peak. (straitstimes.com) (channelnewsasia.com) Route data showed the strength was broad. Singapore Airlines posted load factors of 94.2 percent to the Americas and 93.5 percent to Europe, while Scoot’s East Asia network ran at 92.5 percent and its West Asia network at 91.3 percent. (singaporeair.com) Cargo moved the other way. Group cargo loads fell 1.3 percent from a year earlier even as cargo capacity rose 2.4 percent, pulling the cargo load factor down to 58.5 percent from 64.1 percent. (singaporeair.com) For now, the clearest signal is how full the planes were: more than nine in 10 seats sold across the group in March, with both airlines riding a holiday calendar that shifted demand forward. (singaporeair.com)