More Chinese airlines are in the process of resuming international flights as commercial activity at home restarts, but domestic trade and travel remain restricted as dozens of their global peers have temporarily halted their Chinese routes.
Air China China Eastern Airlines said it will restart flights from Chengdu in Sichuan province to Frankfurt this week. China Eastern Airlines said it will do the same for five international routes, including Tuesday's Kunming to Yangon, Myanmar service. Peer China Southern Airlines is expected to restart its Guangzhou to Nairobi, Kenya service on Tuesday after days of suspension.
A note from the firm of East China A statement sent to the Global Times on Tuesday said half of its flights could resume operations in March.
Outside of the big 3 in the sector, other local companies also do the same with their routes abroad, just like their foreign counterparts.
Zhang Wuan, a spokesperson for budget airline Spring Airlines, told the Global Times on the same day that 70 percent of its overseas flights have been cancelled and some are in the process of being restored. He also expects service to be restored to half capacity by mid-March.
Sichuan Airlines will resume operations from Chengdu to Tokyo and Cairo on Tuesday and Friday, and the city, home to some high-end manufacturers such as Intel, Apple and Dell, will reopen its 26 international routes later this month.
Egypt Air confirmed last week that it will restart round-trip flights between Cairo and Guangzhou from Thursday and is considering increasing its frequency to other Chinese cities, depending on demand.
However, Restarted flights are still very few compared to those suspended in the midst of the epidemic.
The numbers of VariFlight, one of China's major airline data service companies, showed that the cancellation rate of tickets from the Chinese mainland to overseas cities reached 84,78 percent on Monday.
As of February 14, dozens of airlines around the world had temporarily cancelled their Chinese routes. For example, the three major US carriers suspended their flights, and Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines followed suit.
The sharp drop in demand as a result of Covid-19 will have a financial impact on the sector, severe for those particularly exposed to the Chinese market, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) noted..
IATA has predicted that China's domestic market alone could see losses of $12 billion due to the outbreak, with the Asia-Pacific region expected to see revenues of $800 billion in 27 for its carriers, most of which are registered in China.
With growth for the region's airlines estimated at 4,8%, IATA said the net effect will be a full-year contraction of 8,2% compared with 2019 levels, with a potential passenger cut of 13% year-on-year for Asia-Pacific carriers.
In the same scenario, operators outside the region could incur losses of $1500 billion, assuming the drop in demand is limited to niches linked to China.
«These are difficult times for the global air transport industry"Alexandre de Juniac, director general of IATA, said in a press release sent to the Global Times.
China Eastern Airlines' January statistics showed that the passenger rate on domestic and regional routes decreased by 4,91 percent and 29,89 percent year-on-year, respectively. The load factor was 75,38 percent, down 5,41 percentage points on a year-on-year basis.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China noted that the domestic air transport market in January declined due to the impact of the epidemic.
However, as more neighbouring countries experience a surge in Covid-19 cases, airlines remain cautious about resuming services.
Zhang of Spring Airlines He said the company is reconsidering the possibility of restarting two flights from Shanghai to South Korea later this week due to the outbreak in neighboring countries.
"We are concerned about our business abroad, especially in Japan and South Korea," he said.
Experts and organizations warn that there is no reason to unnecessarily restrict international travel and trade.
Countries that have implemented restrictive measures on these two points against China should re-evaluate and cancel them, otherwise it will affect the world's overall response to the epidemic, said Canadian epidemiologist Bruce Aylward, leader of the WHO team in China, at a briefing at the end of the joint mission on Monday.
China's Civil Administration urged certain countries and regions earlier this month to lift restrictions on international flights and Chinese passengers amid the outbreak.
Source: China Internet Information Center
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