Travel restrictions push Asia-Pacific airlines to dismal 2021: AAPA

Government-imposed travel restrictions pushed Asia-Pacific airlines to another dismal year in 2021, but cargo carriage proved to be a silver lining. During calendar 2021, the region’s airlines carried just 16.7m international passengers, down 76.2% from 2020, and representing just 4.4% of the passengers carried in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic, according to preliminary figures from the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA). International ASKs during the year declined 46.5%, and RPKs fell 71.9%. Load factors in 2021 were a mere 32% for the year, down 28.9 percentage points from 2020. AAPA’s numbers are culled from 40 carriers based in the region, which has been hard hit by travel restrictions related to Covid-19. Despite continued weakness in passenger carriage, International cargo showed great strength. AAPA attributes to the region’s major production hubs. Strong export demand and bottlenecks at container ports also helped air cargo.<br/>