Airlines in Asia-Pacific are on a gradual, if not spectacular, course that can reach 100% of pre-COVID levels when it does. In May, the upward trend continued, with passenger numbers growing by 5.4% in comparison with April, but still a great distance wanting where they were in May 2019.
It’s an extended method to 100% recovery
In keeping with the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), airlines within the region carried 21.4 million passengers in May, nearly 3 times the 7.3 million in May last yr. These are positive numbers and mirror the pattern this yr but are still just 70% of the 30.4 million passengers carried in May 2019. From January to May this yr, the airlines carried 95.93 million, while in the identical period in 2019 that was 155.1 million, giving a 61% recovery in 2023 over those five months.
Photo: Markus Mainka/Shutterstock
AAPA Director General Subhas Menon said that strong travel appetite continued to spur recovery in passenger demand which grew by nearly 3 times in May,
“Overall, the outlook for the airlines stays positive, with the recent moderation in oil prices providing some relief to operating expenditure despite the fact that the industry will proceed to face inflationary cost pressures.
“Against this background, the region’s airlines are focussing their attention on disciplined cost management throughout the business while maintaining excellent safety and customer support standards.”
AAPA is the trade association for scheduled airlines based in Asia-Pacific, and each month it correlates traffic data from 40 Asia-Pacific based airlines. Amongst those airlines, which include full-service and low-cost carriers, contributing data are China Eastern, Qantas, Air Recent Zealand, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, AirAsia, Cebu Pacific, IndiGo, EVA Air, Philippine Airlines and China Airlines.
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In addition to passenger numbers, airlines live and breathe by the load factor or the share of seats sold on each flight. In May this yr, the load factor was 78%, in comparison with 72% in 2022 and 78% in 2019. So while the region’s airlines are carrying just 70% of the 2019 traffic, they’ve adjusted their available capability accordingly, which is how they’re keeping load aspects at respectable levels this yr. Capability, as measured by available seat kilometers (ASKs), was 446.1 million in the primary five months of 2023, in comparison with 164 million last yr and 703.4 million in 2019.
Cargo is a priority
After the previous couple of years of booming cargo markets, it seems, not less than in Asia-Pacific, that market is getting rather a lot tougher. For many of this yr, AAPA has been reporting slowing demand and speaking about May, it said that subdued demand conditions, driven by weak business confidence levels, adversely impacted air cargo markets.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
In freight tonne kilometers (FTK) terms, air cargo demand fell by 7% yr on yr while offered freight capability rose 6%. Adding capability while demand is dropping is just not good business, and in May, it generated an 8.5% decline in the common international freight load factor, dragging it all the way down to 60%. Interestingly in May 2019 the freight load factor was 59%, so it seems not rather a lot has modified in any case within the air cargo sector. Menon commented:
How are you seeing demand with airlines in Asia-Pacific? Tell us within the comments.