From 00:00 on January 8, 2023, my country will officially cancel the nucleic acid test and centralized isolation of incoming personnel. According to the official WeChat public account of Beijing Capital International Airport, inbound passenger flights at Capital Airport will resume operations in Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 of Zone E from January 8. Several airlines also announced that all international flights destined for Beijing will no longer be diverted and will land directly in Beijing according to the flight plan.
At 10:36 am on 8 January, Cathay Pacific CX334 landed at Capital Airport, becoming the first flight into Capital Airport that day. In addition, Beijing Daxing International Airport is also ready to welcome inbound passenger flights. According to Himalaya Airlines news, the airline will resume direct passenger flight services from Beijing to Kathmandu from January 17, 2023. Un Yongsheng, general manager of Himalaya Airlines in China, told the “Securities Daily” reporter that Himalaya Airlines is became the first overseas airline to resume flights at Daxing Airport. On the morning of January 17, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines will also resume international routes at Daxing Airport.
“Wide-body airliners with intercontinental flight capability are the main strength of international routes. In the past three years, these aircraft have been used for domestic flights and forced to stop, which has caused severe pressure on the costs of the airlines With the further liberalization of immigration policies, for The easing of airline operations will be reflected in the performance of listed airlines.” Gao Peng, a professional in civil aviation, told the “Securities Daily” reporter.
Listed airlines are actively preparing
Orderly resumption of international routes
To meet the flow of incoming and outgoing passengers, the listed airlines are ready.
According to Air China, from January 8, 2023, 17 international flights of Air China will resume direct flights to Beijing. China Southern Airlines relevant staff told the “Securities Daily” reporter that the company is currently actively preparing for outbound travel. From the supply point of view, the supply of domestic and foreign routes during the Spring Festival holiday is not a problem.
Juneyao Airlines announced that during the Spring Festival travel season, Juneyao Airlines will increase its routes to Thailand to three times a day and continue to request additional and resume other international and regional routes, including Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia, depending on policy optimization and market demand.
Spring Airlines also announced that it plans to resume Shanghai-Singapore routes in the future, adding flights from Shanghai to Bangkok and Guangzhou-Phnom Penh. Spring Airlines currently operates 18 international and regional routes.
“Not long ago, we took over some international routes.” Hainan Airlines relevant staff told the “Securities Daily” reporter that Hainan Airlines will continue to accelerate the recovery of international and regional passenger routes, giving priority to the recovery of international routes operated by Hainan Airlines in 2019 At the same time, we will step up planning and accelerate preparations for the resumption of flights. In 2023, we will resume flights and open new international and regional routes.
Speaking about the timing of the resumption of flights and the opening of new flights, the aforementioned staff of Hainan Airlines said, “We will make preparations in accordance with the relevant entry-exit policies. As for which routes will be restored and when will resume, it will depend on the follow-up agreements.” Public information shows, During the Spring Festival travel season, Hainan Airlines plans to operate 204 international flights.
Some foreign airlines are also preparing to increase the offer of related flights. Huang Kang, president of Delta Air Lines China, told the “Securities Daily” reporter, “We will continue to pay attention to market trends and work closely with our partner China Eastern Airlines to prepare for the gradual recovery of the airlines’ business.” China-US airlines.” It operates 4 China-US flights every week.
According to Singapore Airlines’ official WeChat account, as policies gradually streamline, more destinations will soon resume and more routes will gradually ramp up their flights. Currently, Singapore Airlines operates flights to and from Singapore from six regions including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chongqing.
According to data from Fei Chang Zhun, it is estimated that there will be more than 200 international flights on January 8, an 88 percent increase over the same period last year. Wang Yi, an analyst at Feichangzhun International Air Tickets, said he was cautiously optimistic about the resumption of international flights. At present, major domestic airlines are actively calling for the resumption of international flights, and the number of international flights is expected to increase significantly by the end of March.
Fares for some routes
it fell to the level of the same period in 2019
With the optimization of entry and exit policies, the travel demand of passengers continues to be released.
According to data from an OTA platform, the number of inbound and outbound air ticket orders for travel on January 8 increased 628% year on year, the highest since March 2020. Among them, flight orders in inbound accounted for 48% and outbound flight orders for 52%.
From the point of view of air ticket prices, the Qunar platform data shows that for international air tickets with a departure date during the Spring Festival travel period (January 8 to February 15), the average price paid for outgoing air tickets is 3,481 yuan; the average price paid for inbound air tickets is 4,446 yuan.
Guo Lechun, deputy director of the Qunar Big Data Research Institute, told the Securities Daily reporter that, overall, the current international flight prices are still high. On the one hand, the current international flight volume is still insufficient, even less by 10% in 2019; On the other hand, outbound and inbound bookings are uneven, which also drives up the prices of related routes.
However, it is worth noting that the prices of some routes fell at the same time in 2019. Qunar told the “Securities Daily” reporter that during the Spring Festival, the price of round-trip flights from the mainland to Hong Kong and Macau fell to the level of the same period in 2019. Another foreign airline executive told reporters that the air ticket prices of international routes operated by his airline are also close to the same period in 2019.
As the flight supply increases, the price of airline tickets for international flights is expected to drop further after the Spring Festival. An Yongsheng told the “Securities Daily” reporter, “After the Spring Festival, Himalaya Airlines may adopt promotional activities such as ticket discounts to attract more passengers to take flights.”
According to Gao Peng, as airlines need time to prepare for new openings and the resumption of international routes, travel agencies and overseas travel agencies also need to adjust. This year’s international passenger travel will take several months to recover. For listed airlines, the recovery of domestic passenger business will be better than that of international business.
(edited by: Wen Jing)
