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Zhu Wenqian

Chinese carriers have captured an expanding slice of the international air travel market for routes connecting Chinese and overseas cities since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data presented at an industry summit in Beijing on Friday.
Local carriers currently held a 66.5 per cent market share compared with 33.5 per cent for foreign airlines, said IBA Group, a UK-based aviation intelligence company, which organised the event.
Pre-pandemic, it was a 50:50 split between domestic and foreign carriers. Geopolitical headwinds and economic uncertainties continue to disrupt the aviation industry’s post-pandemic recovery, according to a speaker at the summit.
Stuart Hatcher, chief economist and chief data officer at IBA, said global demand as measured by revenue passenger kilometres (RPK) would be depressed by about 1 per cent to 3 per cent due to the Middle Eastern conflict and rising oil prices.
After a robust recovery in intra- and inter-regional travel demand, the ongoing conflict has derailed Middle East and through traffic. Middle Eastern carriers saw their available seat kilometres (ASK) slump by 50 per cent year on year in April, according to IBA.
Fuelled by strong demand at home, Chinese carriers posted a 0.3 per cent year-on-year rise in ASK in April.

Meanwhile, aircraft efficiency – measured by factors such as number of seats filled, costs and number of flying hours per day – declined across all models globally, with the Airbus A380 seeing the steepest drop at 30.2 per cent in April from the same month last year.
“China is less focused on cost and more focused on maintaining traffic flows for long-range high-volume business and the domestic network,” Hatcher said. He added that in China, aircraft efficiency improved for certain aircraft models, with the Boeing B777-300ER growing by 9.6 per cent, the Airbus A321neo edging up 3.9 per cent, and the Airbus A350-900 rising by 5.9 per cent.
China’s air travel market has seen steady growth in demand so far this year, thanks to favourable policies that facilitate personnel exchanges that in turn generate travel demand.
In the first four months, total passenger throughput in China’s air travel market – which includes domestic and international routes – reached 259.1 million, rising 5 per cent year on year.
In April, passenger traffic on international flights connecting to China stood at 6.8 million, up 5.8 per cent on a yearly basis, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Over the next 20 years, China will become the world’s largest air transport market, requiring 9,570 new aircraft, according to a forecast by Airbus earlier this year.
The country has a growing backlog of aircraft but is still short by about 1,000 narrowbody planes based on delivery slots, assuming an annual fleet addition of 200 aircraft for the sector, IBA said.
Separately, home-grown aircraft manufacturer Commercial Aircraft Corp of China has seen its narrowbody C919 and regional jetliner C909 increasingly penetrate overseas, with an expansion of C909 planes across Southeast Asian markets.


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Geopolitical headwinds and economic uncertainties continue to disrupt the aviation industry’s post-pandemic recovery, IBA says


Geopolitical headwinds and economic uncertainties continue to disrupt the aviation industry’s post-pandemic recovery, IBA says.


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Chinese carriers seize two-thirds share of post-pandemic air routes

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Geopolitical headwinds and economic uncertainties continue to disrupt the aviation industry’s post-pandemic recovery, IBA says

Geopolitical headwinds and economic uncertainties continue to disrupt the aviation industry’s post-pandemic recovery, IBA says