US-China flights still down 94% as post-COVID recovery delayed
Nearly four months after China reopened its borders, nonstop commercial flights to and from the US remain down 94% from pre-pandemic levels even as American carriers seen a rebound in travel to other Asian destinations. Eighty-five flights are scheduled across 10 routes from the US to mainland China this month, compared with the 1,506 across 50 routes that flew in April 2019, data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows. The figures show a slow recovery in travel between the world's two largest economies after the long disruption caused by COVID-19, with airlines expecting improvement in the summer and beyond. Flights are down for both US and Chinese carriers. Air China's operations from Los Angeles to Beijing have dropped from almost three flights daily to just five for all of April. United Airlines service from San Francisco to Shanghai has the most scheduled flights this month with 18. The biggest American airlines have just wrapped up their first-quarter earnings season, which showed major gains in international travel elsewhere across the Pacific, as well as the return of corporate clients. United's passenger revenue in the Pacific region reached $962m, a gain of 324% from Q1 2022 and by far the biggest regional increase for the carrier. Overall passenger revenue rose 62%. Scheduled capacity this summer for United's flights across the Pacific excluding China is forecast to be up 14%. The airline also launched three new US-Japan routes, reestablished two others dormant since 2020 and resumed flights between Hong Kong and San Francisco. United is also greatly expanding flights from the U.S. to Australia and New Zealand at the end of this year. "In regards to China, we continue to be stuck at four flights per week," said Andrew Nocella, United's chief commercial officer. "We are preparing to fly more than that, but have been unable to get that done so far. But hopefully later this year, we will be flying more to China, and we have the aircraft to do so if the conditions allow us to do so."<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-05-01/star/us-china-flights-still-down-94-as-post-covid-recovery-delayed
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US-China flights still down 94% as post-COVID recovery delayed
Nearly four months after China reopened its borders, nonstop commercial flights to and from the US remain down 94% from pre-pandemic levels even as American carriers seen a rebound in travel to other Asian destinations. Eighty-five flights are scheduled across 10 routes from the US to mainland China this month, compared with the 1,506 across 50 routes that flew in April 2019, data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows. The figures show a slow recovery in travel between the world's two largest economies after the long disruption caused by COVID-19, with airlines expecting improvement in the summer and beyond. Flights are down for both US and Chinese carriers. Air China's operations from Los Angeles to Beijing have dropped from almost three flights daily to just five for all of April. United Airlines service from San Francisco to Shanghai has the most scheduled flights this month with 18. The biggest American airlines have just wrapped up their first-quarter earnings season, which showed major gains in international travel elsewhere across the Pacific, as well as the return of corporate clients. United's passenger revenue in the Pacific region reached $962m, a gain of 324% from Q1 2022 and by far the biggest regional increase for the carrier. Overall passenger revenue rose 62%. Scheduled capacity this summer for United's flights across the Pacific excluding China is forecast to be up 14%. The airline also launched three new US-Japan routes, reestablished two others dormant since 2020 and resumed flights between Hong Kong and San Francisco. United is also greatly expanding flights from the U.S. to Australia and New Zealand at the end of this year. "In regards to China, we continue to be stuck at four flights per week," said Andrew Nocella, United's chief commercial officer. "We are preparing to fly more than that, but have been unable to get that done so far. But hopefully later this year, we will be flying more to China, and we have the aircraft to do so if the conditions allow us to do so."<br/>
