Cover Story
Mainland international passengers return to flying
August 1st 2024
International passenger traffic at China’s “Big Three” carriers, Air China (AC), China Eastern Airlines (CEA) and China Southern Airlines (CSA) tracked significantly higher in July compared with a year ago. Read More » In the first seven months of 2024, AC flew 89.5 million passengers, up 25.4% over the same period in 2023. It attracted nine million international passengers to its network in the reported months, 261% better than January to July last year.
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At China Eastern Airlines (CEA), passenger capacity was 115.57% of pre-pandemic July 2019 with 63 million passengers transported from last January to July, including 2.4 million international travellers; 296% higher against the matching months in 2023.
The Mainland’s largest state-owned carrier, China Southern Airlines (CSA), carried 1.6 million international passengers in July, a 58% year-on-year increase.
In its 2024-2043 Commercial Market Outlook (CMO) for China, released at the end of last month, Boeing forecast the Mainland’s airline fleet will more than double in the next two decades and that the country’s air travel will expand by 5.2% a year creating the world’s largest air traffic market.
There will be demand for 8,830 new jet deliveries at China’s airlines: 6,720 wide-bodies, 1,575 narrow-bodies, 365 regional jets and 170 freighters, the CMO said.
China’s commercial airline fleet will grow 4.1% annually, from 4,345 airplanes in 2024 to 9,740 aircraft by 2043, predicted the aerospace OEM. Annual Mainland passenger traffic growth will average 5.9% for the two decades and exceed the annual global average of 4.7%. “Passenger volumes will be boosted as airlines grow their networks by connecting major hubs to smaller cities.
“China will drive growth of single-aisle jets and have the largest wide-body fleet, the CMO added, and said the country’s freighter fleet will near triple by 2043.
“China will need to hire and train near 430,000 new airline cockpit and cabin crew and MRO technical staff”.
