China’s private airline potential has come over 32%, in end, of two weeks. The drop comes as the country battles its worst COVID outbreak since the disease beginning developed in Wuhan
- China has seen its national airline capacity almost consistently rise since March 2020, after the country stamped out its original COVID outbreak.
Near the March of 2021, the country had exceeded pre-pandemic domestic capacity and was flying at nearly 110% of 2019 levels over the season. However, no rise can be perfect in a world with COVID-19.
In the last few weeks, China has seen another outbreak that has triggered strict movement restrictions within near provinces.
- This has forced airlines to scale back their flying rapidly to support containment efforts. According to Bloomberg, capacity has fallen by 32% in the last week alone.
- This is also the steepest drop in capacity seen since COVID first emerged in Wuhan in late 2019. In previous outbreaks over the last year, airlines have slowly reduced capacity depending on which provinces faced restrictions.
- However, with the Delta variant already having spread to over half of the country’s provinces, airlines have had to take quick
COVID Cases
China is one of the few countries, and the only one with a massive population, that follows a strict zero COVID policy. That means even a few cases in a population of 1.4 billion people can trigger widespread lockdown restrictions. As of 10th August, the country has seen a record number of daily cases since last year, at 143. Most of these are locally transmitted, increasing fears of a larger outbreak.
However, for airlines, this is but a temporary setback. In February, carriers were forced to drop capacity by 40% in the weeks leading up to the Chinese New Year due to few local cases that could become larger outbreaks. However, capacity rebounded within a month and has exceeded pre-pandemic levels by March.
China hopes to have the latest outbreak under control in the next three weeks, paving the way for a quick rebound for airlines. However, until then, capacity may continue falling at cases rise quickly to their highest levels.
China maintained zero cases of Covid
While China works hard to maintain COVID zero status, is this a sustainable route? The answer is likely no for a country as interconnected as China. With major events like the Winter Olympics just months away and businesses already struggling to fly in employees, China’s stringent border restrictions have left it behind other countries in terms of a full reopening. Moreover, airlines also need international flying to continue growing.
Some international reopening will require a larger share of the population to be vaccinated to prevent more cases. For now, airlines will be waiting with bated breath to see the current outbreak pass and bounce back to its highs.
Also read: Former Indigo President Aditya Ghosh joins Akasa Air
Also, read VTOL Aviation Is Hiring Structural Design & FEA Engineer In Mumbai
Thank you
