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September passenger traffic delivers mixed performance at China’s major carriers
October 18th 2021
Domestic passenger traffic for China’s big three airlines rebounded from a lacklustre August in September but demand remained well down on last year. Read More » Regional traffic also recorded a big percentage boost for two of the three carriers. Air China reported a 28.3% fall in domestic passenger traffic (revenue passenger kilometres) compared with last year but a 71.1% increase against August. International traffic was down by more than 30% compared from a year ago but regional traffic was up by almost 530%. It was a similar story on the domestic routes of China Southern Airlines, where RPKs were down 25.6% year-on-year but up by 75.9% compared with August. International passenger traffic declined 28.8% year-on-year and the Guangzhou-based carrier missed out on the regional boost seen by its competitors with year-on-year traffic was down 36.7%. China Eastern Airlines experienced a domestic RPK drop of 31.6% in September over a year ago. International numbers fell away by 12.9%. Regional traffic saw a hefty rise of 212.6% compared with September 2020.
