A trusted source of Asia-Pacific commercial aviation news and analysis


APRIL 2021

Week 15

Orient Aviation Daily Digest April 16, 2021

A look at the week

By Jordan Chong

The monthly traffic statistics published this week by some of the region's largest carriers has again highlighted the disparity in performance between airlines with a domestic market and those without.

In the without column are Cathay Pacific Group and the SIA group, which have reported demand, or revenue passenger kilometres (RPK), fell 95.7% and 90.2%, respectively, in March. Hong Kong and Singapore do not have domestic markets. They rely exclusively on international travel, which has been severely restricted by closed international borders during the pandemic.

In contrast, the latest passenger numbers from China's three largest airline groups – Air China, China Eastern Airlines (CEA) and China Southern Airlines (CSA) – show domestic travel grew strongly on both a year-on-year and month-on-month basis in March. Read More »

 

News

Hong Kong’s “stringent crew quarantine requirements” add to Cathay Pacific Group operating woes

Cathay Pacific Group chief customer and commercial officer, Ronald Lam, said today the airline's passenger capacity declined 47% month-on-month for March amid significant challenges from the pandemic. Read More »


 

News

Capacity will increase to 27% of pre-COVID-19 levels by June predicts SIA Group

Singapore Airlines (SIA) said yesterday capacity across the airline company would reach about 27% of pre-COVID-19 levels by June "based on modest growth of the passenger network" in the coming months. Read More »


 

News

Garuda Indonesia group propped up by Citilink domestic demand

Garuda Indonesia's monthly traffic report showed the airline flew 243,963 passengers on its domestic network in February, down 75.1% from 980,664 in the corresponding period last year. Read More »


 

News

Domestic passengers carried on Air China jump 171.6% for the month

Air China's monthly traffic report, published yesterday, showed the airline flew 7.5 million passengers on its domestic network in March, a 171.6% improvement from the same month a year earlier. Read More »


 

News

China Eastern recorded 304.7% spike in passengers flying within the Mainland in March

Down the road from Beijing, Shanghai’s China Eastern Airlines (CEA) said in its monthly traffic report, published yesterday, the pandemic was "still the greatest uncertainty affecting the recovery and development of the civil aviation industry", and noted the COVID-19 situation varied widely from country to country. Read More »


 

News

Largest of “Big Three” China airlines lags behind northern rivals in passenger growth

China Southern Airlines (CSA) said domestic passenger numbers rose 122.4% month-on-month, to 11.1 million in March 2021. Read More »