December 1st 2022

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December

Heading into 2023, all eyes were on China. Read More » As many aviation watchers have noted throughout 2022, closure of China’s international border and extended lockdowns have put the handbrake on the industry’s recovery from the pandemic.

While China’s government eased some local restrictions this month, following protests in a number of cities, the main focus for airlines in 2023 is expected to be when the country may again welcome independent travellers and, more importantly, allow its residents to freely travel overseas.

IATA director general, Willie Walsh, said the performance of the industry was uneven, but that decarbonising the industry in order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 will ‘cost trillions of dollars” prompting higher air fares.

Early in the month, Air Canada announced seasonal nonstop Vancouver-Bangkok flights. The route is a new entrant in the North America-South East Asia market, alongside United Airlines’ San Francisco-Singapore and Singapore Airlines to various points in the U.S. and Canada. The Air Canada rotation will operate to next March.

Airbus said its target of 700 commercial aircraft deliveries for calendar 2022 was now “out of reach” but that it will produce 65 A320 family aircraft a month in 2023 and 2024 after taking into account “this complex environment will persist longer than previously expected”.

For Boeing, it was still a waiting game for China’s signing off of the 737 MAX’s return to commercial flying on the Mainland. Analysts also remain keen to know more about the projected pace of 787 deliveries after a pause of more than a year due to a manufacturing issue.

At the onset of the pandemic in early 2020 the world’s A380 fleet appeared doomed. There were no passengers to fill the super-size jet so the aircraft were flown to the giant but forlorn dessert aircraft parking lots of the U.S. and also, to a lesser degree, to central Australia. Not so now. The prodigal son of the region’s airline fleet, ever popular with passengers, is flying again with several Asia-Pacific and Gulf carriers as they race to address pent up post-pandemic air travel demand. Etihad Airways is the latest carrier to send A380s back to the skies, following a recent SIA Group decision to add more A380 services to its South West Pacific network.

At press time, in a long-awaited change in COVID-19 rules for travellers entering Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) announced visitors to Hong Kong could now move about freely, including visits to restaurants and bars, from the day of arrival if they tested negative to the virus. Introduced from December 14, it was widely welcomed by airlines even though all travelers flying into Hong Kong must still take a PCR test on arrival at the airport and on the second day after entering the HKSAR.