As local airlines gain market share on international routes, foreign airlines are losing interest in China due to weak local travel demand and rising costs. Airlines are extending flights to China to avoid Russian airspace, making flights more costly. Therefore, carriers including British Airways and Australia’s Qantas Airways have opted to either pull services or avoid restarting flights to China after the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, Chinese airlines are gaining more traction and expanding their international operations.
Chinese airlines take over international flights
Last month, Chinese airlines including China Southern, China Eastern and Air China operated 90 percent of the number of international flights they were operating in July 2019, according to Cirium data. Meanwhile, foreign carriers operated only 60 percent of pre-pandemic flights.
China’s international air traffic has been recovering since lifting pandemic restrictions in 2023. However, it has recovered slower than other countries due to the decline in the economy and a shift toward domestic travel. In July, there were 23 percent fewer flights out of China than during the same month in 2019, Cirium data shows.
Western airlines halt China operations
Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, Chinese carriers have continued to take shorter northern routes to Europe and North America over Russia’s vast airspace. Notably, British Airways said last week that it will stop flights from London to Beijing for a year starting in October for commercial reasons. In addition, the airline suspended one of its two daily flights to Hong Kong last month for a year.
Moreover, Virgin Atlantic said last month that it will halt its London-Shanghai service indefinitely starting from the end of October due to longer flight times. Qantas cited half-empty planes and low demand for China travel when it suspended Sydney-Shanghai flights in July. Meanwhile, Asian carrier Royal Brunei Airlines stated market conditions as the reason for suspending the two weekly flights to Beijing starting in October.
Flights between China and the United States are at about 20 percent of 2019 levels after a bilateral air services agreement was suspended in 2020. Mutual flight authorizations have gradually increased. However, U.S. airlines are running only 35 return flights a week of the 50 permitted, Cirium data shows, whereas Chinese carriers have increased to 49 a week.
Read: China’s 1,000-km/h high-speed flying train completes successful full-scale test
Middle Eastern airlines expand China network
The decline in foreign airline flights to China has given local airlines an advantage, allowing them to take over a larger share of international flights.
However, in the Middle East, Dubai’s Emirates airline has fully restored capacity to China. Kuwait Airways has increased frequencies and Bahrain’s Gulf Air started flights for the first time to two Chinese cities in May.
For more news on logistics, click here.
