SINGAPORE, June 16 (Xinhua) -- The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group carried 3.6 million passengers in May, up 5.2 percent from a year earlier, supported by continued demand across its network despite a slight decline in passenger load factor, SIA said in a bourse filing on Monday.

A Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner sits on the tarmac as people gather for a delivery ceremony to Singapore Airlines at the Boeing South Carolina Plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, United States March 25, 2018. (File photo via China Daily)

Passenger traffic, measured in revenue passenger-kilometers, rose 4.9 percent year-on-year during the month, while passenger capacity increased 5.3 percent.

As a result, the group's passenger load factor slipped 0.4 percentage points to 86 percent. Flag carrier Singapore Airlines recorded a load factor of 84.6 percent, while low-cost subsidiary Scoot posted a higher 91.2 percent.

On the cargo front, demand remained resilient, with cargo loads rising 3.2 percent year-on-year, outpacing a 1.5 percent increase in cargo capacity. This lifted the cargo load factor by 0.9 percentage points to 58.1 percent.

The airline group said it continued to benefit from spillover passenger and cargo traffic arising from capacity constraints at Middle Eastern aviation hubs, although the impact eased compared with previous months as operating conditions gradually improved.