Chinese airlines are rapidly increasing their domestic flight schedules after Beijing’s relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions sparked a rise in demand for air travel, the potential start of what could be a tailwind for the global aviation industry.
China had been set to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest aviation market before Covid hit but the country has been among the slowest to recover from the pandemic-era collapse in air travel. Now, after widespread protests prompted Beijing to review its stringent zero-Covid protocols, Chinese airlines are putting on more flights and offering discounts and promotions to get travelers back in the skies.
The impact from the easing of restrictions on travel within China has been near immediate. On Monday, Dec. 12—days after cross-regional travel restrictions were lifted—the total number of domestic flights in China surged 158% to 7,290 compared with the same day two weeks earlier, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
“This is a period of rapid recovery,” state-owned
China Eastern Airlines Corp.
CEA -1.11%
said Wednesday on its Weibo social-media page. “The domestic flight volume has shown a continuous and rapid increase in the past few days.”
China Eastern said in the same post that its daily domestic flights had increased more than 150% since Dec. 1, when it flew just 543 domestic flights. It said nearly 140,000 passengers traveled that Wednesday, almost 140% more than at the start of the month.
Flight numbers mostly remain at or below levels reached earlier this year, as well as year-ago levels, and the surge in activity has largely been confined to domestic routes, benefiting Chinese carriers.
International flights, especially those operated by Western airlines, remain few and far between, with Chinese fliers continuing to face barriers to overseas travel and quarantine stays are still required for international arrivals to China. The number of flights in and out of China has consistently been more than 80% below prepandemic levels for most of this year, according to Cirium data.
The rise in domestic travel activity follows China’s relaxation of Covid restrictions that have been blamed for curbing economic growth in the world’s No. 2 economy and crashing the country’s tourism and travel industries.
China relaxed a host of pandemic-control rules in November, reducing the quarantine period required for international travelers arriving in the country and scrapping a so-called circuit-breaker mechanism that had led to a rash of last-minute international flight cancellations.
Beijing then further eased restrictions earlier this month, dropping Covid-testing requirements for entering public places and for traveling between regions in China.
China Southern Airlines Co.
ZNH -1.66%
, China’s largest airline by traffic, said it is adding new flights in response to the rule changes, including the operation of the longest domestic flight currently on offer: a round-trip route from Guangzhou to Altay City, a city near the northwestern border with Russia. The journey takes about six hours.
Shanghai-based
Spring Airlines Co.
601021 -2.43%
said search volumes for air tickets have more than doubled recently from a year ago. It has also begun offering flights to popular vacation destinations around the country for the coming Lunar New Year holiday in January for as low as 99 yuan, about $14, the airline said.
Trip.com,
TCOM -0.88%
an online travel service in China, said search interest in domestic travel routes rose 74% from the previous week on the day the latest rule-easing plan was announced. On the same day, domestic travel searches for the Lunar New Year holiday rose 172% from the previous week, Trip.com said.
While domestic airlines are so far the main beneficiaries of the resurgence in demand, the revival of the Chinese market will be welcomed by the wider aviation industry.
The slow recovery in China has held back the global industry’s recovery from the pandemic, suppressing demand in the wider Asia-Pacific region and offsetting profits in Europe and the U.S. where travelers have rushed back to the skies.
Airlines across the globe are forecast to report a combined loss of $6.9 billion for 2022, according to the International Air Transport Association, a trade group, with losses among Asian carriers offsetting gains for airlines in North America.
Capacity has also been slower to recover across the entire Asia-Pacific region, primarily because of China. IATA is forecasting full-year capacity across the region to reach 75.5% of prepandemic levels this year, compared with 98.9% of 2019 levels in North America.
Suppressed demand for international air travel from China has left many airlines facing a long road to full recovery.
Hong Kong flagship carrier
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.
, which served many routes to China and globally, said it had added about 3,000 new flights in the fourth quarter of this year, but doesn’t expect a full recovery to prepandemic capacity until 2024. The airline has posted a string of quarterly losses since the start of the pandemic.
“There is no update on outbound travel so international capacity will be suppressed until we get further clarity on this,” said Mayur Patel, head of Asia at travel-data firm OAG. “For now, domestic travel and potential cross-border reopening with Hong Kong will be in the first stage toward a broader outbound international travel program.”
Write to Dan Strumpf at Dan.Strumpf@wsj.com and Benjamin Katz at ben.katz@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Chinese airlines are rapidly increasing their domestic flight schedules after Beijing’s relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions sparked a rise in demand for air travel, the potential start of what could be a tailwind for the global aviation industry.
China had been set to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest aviation market before Covid hit but the country has been among the slowest to recover from the pandemic-era collapse in air travel. Now, after widespread protests prompted Beijing to review its stringent zero-Covid protocols, Chinese airlines are putting on more flights and offering discounts and promotions to get travelers back in the skies.
The impact from the easing of restrictions on travel within China has been near immediate. On Monday, Dec. 12—days after cross-regional travel restrictions were lifted—the total number of domestic flights in China surged 158% to 7,290 compared with the same day two weeks earlier, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
“This is a period of rapid recovery,” state-owned
China Eastern Airlines Corp.
CEA -1.11%
said Wednesday on its Weibo social-media page. “The domestic flight volume has shown a continuous and rapid increase in the past few days.”
China Eastern said in the same post that its daily domestic flights had increased more than 150% since Dec. 1, when it flew just 543 domestic flights. It said nearly 140,000 passengers traveled that Wednesday, almost 140% more than at the start of the month.
Flight numbers mostly remain at or below levels reached earlier this year, as well as year-ago levels, and the surge in activity has largely been confined to domestic routes, benefiting Chinese carriers.
International flights, especially those operated by Western airlines, remain few and far between, with Chinese fliers continuing to face barriers to overseas travel and quarantine stays are still required for international arrivals to China. The number of flights in and out of China has consistently been more than 80% below prepandemic levels for most of this year, according to Cirium data.
The rise in domestic travel activity follows China’s relaxation of Covid restrictions that have been blamed for curbing economic growth in the world’s No. 2 economy and crashing the country’s tourism and travel industries.
China relaxed a host of pandemic-control rules in November, reducing the quarantine period required for international travelers arriving in the country and scrapping a so-called circuit-breaker mechanism that had led to a rash of last-minute international flight cancellations.
Beijing then further eased restrictions earlier this month, dropping Covid-testing requirements for entering public places and for traveling between regions in China.
China Southern Airlines Co.
ZNH -1.66%
, China’s largest airline by traffic, said it is adding new flights in response to the rule changes, including the operation of the longest domestic flight currently on offer: a round-trip route from Guangzhou to Altay City, a city near the northwestern border with Russia. The journey takes about six hours.
Shanghai-based
Spring Airlines Co.
601021 -2.43%
said search volumes for air tickets have more than doubled recently from a year ago. It has also begun offering flights to popular vacation destinations around the country for the coming Lunar New Year holiday in January for as low as 99 yuan, about $14, the airline said.
Trip.com,
TCOM -0.88%
an online travel service in China, said search interest in domestic travel routes rose 74% from the previous week on the day the latest rule-easing plan was announced. On the same day, domestic travel searches for the Lunar New Year holiday rose 172% from the previous week, Trip.com said.
While domestic airlines are so far the main beneficiaries of the resurgence in demand, the revival of the Chinese market will be welcomed by the wider aviation industry.
The slow recovery in China has held back the global industry’s recovery from the pandemic, suppressing demand in the wider Asia-Pacific region and offsetting profits in Europe and the U.S. where travelers have rushed back to the skies.
Airlines across the globe are forecast to report a combined loss of $6.9 billion for 2022, according to the International Air Transport Association, a trade group, with losses among Asian carriers offsetting gains for airlines in North America.
Capacity has also been slower to recover across the entire Asia-Pacific region, primarily because of China. IATA is forecasting full-year capacity across the region to reach 75.5% of prepandemic levels this year, compared with 98.9% of 2019 levels in North America.
Suppressed demand for international air travel from China has left many airlines facing a long road to full recovery.
Hong Kong flagship carrier
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.
, which served many routes to China and globally, said it had added about 3,000 new flights in the fourth quarter of this year, but doesn’t expect a full recovery to prepandemic capacity until 2024. The airline has posted a string of quarterly losses since the start of the pandemic.
“There is no update on outbound travel so international capacity will be suppressed until we get further clarity on this,” said Mayur Patel, head of Asia at travel-data firm OAG. “For now, domestic travel and potential cross-border reopening with Hong Kong will be in the first stage toward a broader outbound international travel program.”
Write to Dan Strumpf at Dan.Strumpf@wsj.com and Benjamin Katz at ben.katz@wsj.com
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8