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China's domestic passenger market edges closer to pre-COVID-19 levels
September 18th 2020
Monthly traffic reports from China's three biggest airline groups showed domestic air travel was moving closer to pre-coronavirus numbers. Read More »
China Southern Airlines (CSA) said this week it flew 10.3 million domestic passengers in August, down 16.3% from a year earlier. But year-on-year declines have narrowed since the lows of February when passengers carried declined by 86.4% from a year earlier.
Capacity too has expanded steadily at CSA – China's largest airline by passengers – since February, when domestic available seat kilometres (ASK) declined by 74.3%. In August, ASKs were 7.4% lower than a year ago.
Travel restrictions have eased on the Mainland and airlines have been gradually increasing flights across the country as the risk of contracting COVID-19 has decreased.
Promotions such as low-price "fly anywhere" packages are encouraging people to travel.
New cases of individuals testing positive for the coronavirus were still being reported daily, but they were imported cases rather than community transmissions, according to figures from China's National Health Commission.
The recovery has been similar at Air China, which flew 7.3 million travellers on its domestic network in August, down 14.2% from 12 months ago. It was the fourth straight month the year-on-year decline had narrowed. Air China reported domestic ASKs in August were 3.4% lower than a year earlier. In February, capacity tumbled by 72.4%.
Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) deputy director, Cui Xiaofeng, told local media this week daily domestic flights rose to about 13,000 at the end of August, which represented approximately 90% of pre-COVID-19 levels.
Domestic passengers transported were back to about 80% of pre-virus numbers for the reported period and about 90% of airline routes within China were being operated.
Market watchers are tipping the September data, due out next month, will show China’s airline market has returned to pre-pandemic times.
In terms of domestic capacity, China Eastern Airlines (CEA) was closest to pre-coronavirus levels in August, with ASKs down 0.77% for the month. In February, CEA's domestic ASKs were 78% lower compared with a year earlier.
The percentage decline in CEA's domestic passengers has changed from 88.5% in February to 14.9% in August, the month the airline carried 8.5 million travellers on its China network.
CEA said promotions such as "Wild Your Weekends" and "Wild Morning and Nights" and other new products had "revitalised the resources of the company’s current transportation capacity".
Although the domestic traffic figures were encouraging, the “Big Three” airline groups reported their international networks were down more than 90% in August as international borders stayed largely closed.
