China’s ‘Big Three’ see tepid traffic recovery in October

China’s ‘Golden Week’ holiday at the start of October failed to provide any meaningful uplift for domestic traffic, as the country’s three largest carriers saw a drop in traffic against 2020 levels. In October, the ‘Big Three’ — comprising Air China, China Eastern and China Southern — carried more passengers against September, but a fast-growing wave of coronavirus infections in swathes of the country put the brakes on any significant increase in traffic. Chinese domestic traffic bottomed out in August as the country battled one of the countries worst waves of infections, which saw onerous travel restrictions imposed. Since then, it has slowly climbed back up, but the continued wave of cases — coupled with China’s strict zero-infection policy — have dampened recovery momentum. Air China carried 6.4m domestic passengers in October, 16% higher than September, but a 23% drop against October 2020 numbers. Traffic for the month fell 23% year on year, while capacity dropped 16.1%. Month on month, the Beijing-based carrier saw a 14% increase in traffic and a 9.6% rise in capacity.<br/>