Covid-19 outbreak dents Chinese majors’ January traffic

China’s three largest airlines began the year with falling traffic, amid the growing spread of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country and around the world. In traffic figures released for January, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines all carried fewer passengers, and recorded drops in passenger load factors. Regional routes on each of the carriers bore the brunt of falling traffic figures, many notching double-digit decreases for the period. Air China carried 9.2m passengers for the month, a 4.1% drop year-on-year. Its regional network saw passenger numbers tumble 18.7% — the largest change across the carrier’s network. The only bright spot was its international network, which saw a marginal 0.9% rise in passengers carried. <br/>