All Nippon Airlines' (ANA) latest monthly traffic report showed it flew 707,378 passengers across its domestic network in June. Although the figures represented an 80% decline from a year earlier, they were more than double the 229,706 domestic passengers flown by the carrier in May. There also was a 195% month-on-month improvement in demand, or revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), for the reported period. Capacity grew by 64%. With demand rising faster than capacity, passenger load factor increased 23.1 percentage points, from 28.9% in May to 52% in June. Read More »
China Southern Airlines (CSA) said today it planned to operate 23 international services a week on 17 routes next August compared with 18 return flights a week on 18 routes in July. Flight schedules posted on the CSA website showed the airline was dropping Guangzhou-Kathmandu but was adding second weekly return services from Guangzhou to Amsterdam, Auckland, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Vancouver and Yangon.
Air New Zealand's monthly traffic statistics published yesterday showed the airline transported 405,000 domestic passengers in June. While this was down 62.6% from 1.025 million in June 2019, the figures were a 586% increase from 59,000 domestic passengers flown in May. Domestic capacity, or ASKs, in June was up 388% compared with May, Passenger load factor was 68%, a 19 percentage point improvement from 49% in May. The airline has said its domestic schedule in August would be at 70% of its operations before the coronavirus pandemic outbreak.
Earlier today the airline said it had "put a hold" on further bookings to Australia until August 28 following the Australian government’s decision to place a cap of 30 passengers per flight into Brisbane and Sydney. Air NZ chief commercial and customer officer, Cam Wallace, said the hold on bookings was to help prevent disruptions to customer journeys should those restrictions be extended. Melbourne has not been receiving international passengers since the start of July as the city dealt with a fresh outbreak of the coronavirus.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said overnight it did not expect passenger traffic, measured by RPKs, to return to levels experienced before the coronavirus pandemic until at least 2024. The latest forecast was a year later than IATA's previous estimates. “Passenger traffic hit bottom in April, but the strength of the upturn has been very weak," IATA director general and CEO, Alexandre de Juniac, said in a statement.
The airline lobby group's latest traffic report showed RPKs fell 86.5% in June, compared with a year earlier. The numbers were slightly above the 91% year-on-year contraction of May and represented a second consecutive month of seasonally adjusted RPK growth. Capacity was down 80.1% year-on-year in June. With passenger volumes falling faster than capacity, the global passenger load factor reached an all-time low for June at 57.6%.
Schedules from China Eastern Airlines (CEA) published late last week reported the SkyTeam alliance member would serve 22 international routes in August, with 18 flights from Shanghai, two flights from Kunming and one flight from Hangzhou. This was an increase of 21 international routes in July. The new flight from Hangzhou will be to Sydney, schedules published on the CEA website showed. Kunming-Dhaka has been dropped.
