News
China's three largest airlines implement sharp capacity cuts
August 10th 2021
China Southern Airlines (CSA) has removed about 1.4 million seats from its schedule in the past week amid a fresh outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, figures from travel data company, OAG, show. Read More » The Guangzhou-based carrier had 1.44 million seats in its schedule for the week of August 9, down 49.5% from 2.85 million seats a week earlier. It was a similar story at Air China and China Eastern Airlines (CEA). They slashed capacity by 33.4% and 30.7% week-on-week, respectively. "All the major Chinese carriers have been impacted by the most recent domestic lockdowns. We do not expect to see an immediate recovery of that capacity in the coming weeks which will further depress the global recovery," the OAG report said. "Although all of the capacity cuts are in the domestic market, it places the chances of international capacity recovering in China further away and perhaps not before the second quarter of 2022 given the extreme caution being shown by the authorities."
