China Eastern Airlines (CEA) carried 8.5 million passengers on its domestic network in August, down 14.9% from 11.9 million 12 months ago. The airline's monthly traffic report, published yesterday, said domestic demand, measured by revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), was down 15.2% year-on-year in August, while capacity, or available seat kilometres (ASK), was 0.77% lower compared with a year earlier. Domestic passenger load factor was 74% this August, compared with 86.6% in the same month in 2019. Read More »
Air China said in its monthly traffic report, published yesterday, it flew 7.3 million domestic passengers in August. While the figure represented a 14% decline from 8.5 million a year ago, it was up 25.3% from 5.8 million in July. Demand, or RPKs, declined 17% year-on-year in August and capacity, or ASKs, was 3.4% lower. Domestic passenger load factor was 74% in August, compared with 72.3% in July and 86.1% in August 2019.
Singapore Airlines Group said yesterday its three operating carriers flew 39,800 passengers in August, a decline of 98.8% from 3.3 million in August last year. But in an encouraging sign, the August figures represented a 17.4% improvement from the 33,900 passengers flown across SIA, SilkAir and Scoot in July, with demand, or RPKs, up 19.4% month-on-month in August. SIA's monthly traffic report said capacity, or ASKs, grew to about 7.8% of pre-COVID-19 levels in August, compared with 5.7% in July.
Indian LCC, SpiceJet, has reported a net loss of 5.9 billion rupees (US$80 million) for the three months to June 30, as suspension of flight operations for most of the quarter pushed the airline into the red. It had reported a net profit of 2.6 billion rupees 12 months ago. Revenue collapsed by 77 %, to 7.1 billion rupees, SpiceJet said in a regulatory filing to India's BSE stock exchange yesterday.
SpiceJet chairman and managing director, Ajay Singh, said there were early encouraging signs towards recovery. "I am confident as more and more states ease travel restrictions and business activity returns to normal there will be a significant improvement in the operating environment for airlines," he said.
Australian government figures showed 73,851 passengers flew into and out of the country in July, down 98% from 3.7 million in the same month in 2019. The directional flow was heavily weighted towards inbound arrivals with 53,835 travellers entering Australia and 20,016 departing, said the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) in its monthly report. Available seats fell 94.3%, to 264,564 in July compared with a year earlier and flight movements declined 82.7% year-on-year. Qatar Airways was Australia's largest international carrier in the month, with a 27.2% share of passengers carried, after Air New Zealand (13.6%) and Emirates (10.7%).
Air New Zealand (AirNZ) said today another 385 cabin crew positions would be cut due to the decline in demand for long-haul flights, local media reported. The airline said its international schedule continued to be restricted by border restrictions, which meant there was not enough flying for its cabin crew headcount. The proposed cabin crew job losses are in addition to previously announced redundancies of 4,000 AirNZ staff.
