Singapore Airlines (SIA)Group carriers flew 49,000 passengers in October, up 15% from 42,600 in September. Read More » The airline group's monthly traffic report, published yesterday, said the Singapore government had expanded the list of countries to which it had unilaterally opened its borders and more cities had been granted approval to transit through Changi Airport. "These positive developments have helped to bolster the SIA Group of airlines’ ongoing recovery from COVID-19," SIA said.
Despite the month-on-month improvement, the October figures were down 98.5% from 3.2 million a year earlier. Passenger load factor across Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot was 15.8% in October, a 68.6 percentage point reduction from 84.4% 12 months ago and below the 17.2% recorded in September. "Demand for air travel continued to remain soft as border controls and strict travel restrictions remained in place in most countries to curb COVID-19," SIA Group said.
Seoul Incheon-Tokyo Narita was the busiest international route in the Asia-Pacific with 109,868 seats, reported travel data company, OAG. Globally, the city pair was the fourth busiest route, behind Dubai-London Heathrow (111,000 seats), Orlando-San Juan (137,886 seats) and Cairo-Jeddah (147,950 seats). OAG said the top 10 busiest domestic routes were in Asia: China (4), Japan (4), South Korea (1) and Vietnam (1). Jeju-Seoul Gimpo headed the pack at 1.33 million seats, followed by Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City (892,805 seats) and Beijing-Shanghai Hongqiao (768,184 seats).
All Nippon Airways (ANA) flew 1.71 million domestic passengers in October, up 36% from 1.26 million in September. It was the fifth consecutive month-on-month improvement in domestic passenger numbers, the airline said. Demand rose 38% month-on-month and capacity was 20% higher. Domestic passenger load factor was 60.9% for the month compared with 53.2% in September, ANA said.
Japan Airlines (JAL) has reported passengers travelling on its domestic network rose 39%, to 1.73 million in October, from 1.24 million in September, the second straight month of domestic passenger expansion. Demand increased by 40% month-on-month and capacity expanded by 25%. As a result, passenger load factor was 7.1 percentage points higher, at 66.8%, JAL said.
Virgin Australia (VA) was officially removed from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today, one of the final steps to completion of its sale to Bain Capital. "We advise all the shares in VAH (Virgin Australia Holdings) have been transferred to Bain Capital or its nominee in accordance with the orders made by the Federal Court of Australia on November 10, 2020 and the VAH deed of company arrangement," administrator Deloitte said in a regulatory filing. “As such there will be no further market announcements made by VAH.”
Air China said passengers on its domestic network rose 3.6%, to 8.4 million in October compared with a year earlier. The Star Alliance member's monthly traffic report said domestic passengers were up 2.6% year-on-year and grew by 13.7%. With capacity growth outpacing demand, passenger load factor declined 8.3 percentage points to 76.1%. Elsewhere in the report, Air China said it added one COMAC ARJ21 and one A320neo to its fleet in October and one A320 was retired.
China Eastern Airlines (CEA) transported 9.1 million domestic passengers in October. Domestic demand was up 0.6%, while capacity was 9.7% higher, CEA said in its October traffic report. Domestic passenger load factor was 76.8% for the 31 reported days, down 6.9 percentage points from 83.7% a year earlier. "The strike and impact of COVID-19 on the international and domestic businesses of the company have great uncertainty in terms of their time span and severity," CEA said.
