China: CAAC warns that air traffic return will be slow

While some capacity has been restored for Mainland China flights, it is likely to remain low for the foreseeable future. In its monthly update, CAAC states that “the volume of flights…may continue to operate at low levels in the future”, as the coronavirus outbreak still holds significant risk levels. After bottoming out in February, when the outbreak hit China badly, Chinese carriers have been steadily adding domestic capacity from March into April and May. These, however, are still lower compared to the same period a year ago. To this end, CAAC director of aviation safety Xiong Jie says the administration will focus first on establishing pandemic risk prevention, “to create a safe operating environment”. For the month of March, airlines in China carried 15.1m passengers, nearly 72% lower year-on-year. <br/>