China’s ‘Big Three’ July traffic grows, despite rising Covid-19

A fresh wave of coronavirus infections in several parts of China in late-July failed to dampen domestic traffic growth for the country’s three largest carriers. The ‘Big Three’ — comprising Air China, China Eastern and China Southern — each carried more domestic passengers in July compared to June, as well as the same period a year ago. This was despite a fifth wave of infections — caused by the more infectious Delta variant — sweeping across several parts of China and leaving several cities, including the infection epicentre of Nanjing, under lockdown and with many others imposing stricter social gathering measures. The first case from the current wave — an airport worker in Nanjing — was discovered on 20 July. Days later, the airport, a key air transport node in China, was completely shut, with other airports imposing more stringent pre-departure and post-arrival measures to manage the crisis. China Eastern also warned that the pandemic “still has a significant impact” on its airline business. Still, the tightened measures in the last week of the month did little to dent domestic traffic numbers in July, traditionally a peak travel period in China in summer. Air China carried 7.6m domestic passengers for the month, a 23.5% increase compared to June and a 31% uptick year on year. On a year-on-year basis, the Beijing-based carrier reported a 37% increase in traffic, with capacity rising 33%. Domestic passenger load factor for the month was 74.6%, 2.4 percentage points higher year on year. <br/>