After entering 2024, when "transportation production returns to natural growth", the civil aviation industry got off to a good start in the first quarter. On April 16, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (hereinafter referred to as "CAAC"), passenger traffic and cargo and mail traffic both reached the highest value in the first quarter of each year, and the passenger scale of international routes recovered to 78% in the same period of 2019. The outstanding results in the first quarter were mainly driven by the Spring Festival travel. In the flat and slack season in March, the key operating indicators of listed airlines declined month on month, but the decline was small, and the load factor basically remained above 80%.

Passenger traffic volume increased by 10.2% compared with 2019

In the first quarter data released by the Civil Aviation Administration, the total transport turnover, passenger transport volume and other indicators all exceeded the level of the same period in 2019.

Specifically, the total transportation turnover of civil aviation industry was 34.93 billion ton kilometers, up 45.6% year on year and 12.9% year on year. In terms of passenger transport, the total passenger transport volume of the whole industry in the first quarter was close to 180 million person times, the highest passenger transport volume in the first quarter over the years, with a year-on-year growth of 37.7% and 10.2% compared with the same period in 2019. Among them, the number of domestic routes reached 160 million, an increase of 14.3% over the same period in 2019.

While the passenger volume reached a new high, the recovery of flight volume in the first quarter also exceeded the same period in 2019. According to flight steward data, the total number of civil aviation passenger flights in the first quarter of 2024 will be 1.346 million, an increase of 26.8% year-on-year in 2023 and 4.6% year-on-year in 2019.

Qi Qi, an expert from the High Quality Development Research Center of CAAC, said that the first quarter of 2024 includes all the important time nodes and travel peaks in the Spring Festival travel, so driven by the strong demand for the Spring Festival travel, the bright results of the first quarter are also expected.

The data previously released by the Civil Aviation Administration also confirmed this: during the Spring Festival, the national civil aviation transported 83.45 million passengers, with a daily average of more than 2.086 million, an increase of 51.1% over the 2023 Spring Festival, and 14.5% over 2019. The passenger traffic volume hit a new record.

The favorable Spring Festival transportation has also significantly improved the operating efficiency of domestic airlines. According to the data of CAAC, the number of domestic airlines making profits in February 2024 will reach 23. In the first quarter, the domestic airlines will make profits of 2.46 billion yuan, with a year-on-year loss reduction and profit increase of 9.51 billion yuan. Sixteen airlines will make profits.

In the view of Zhao Wei, a professor of CAAC Management Cadre College, civil aviation will recover strongly in 2024. During the Spring Festival holiday, the domestic and international civil aviation markets performed well. From the overall situation of the first quarter, "breaking records" should be the normal state of the civil aviation market in 2024.

International airline passenger volume recovered to 78%

International routes in the first quarter of 2024 are also continuing to recover. According to the data of Civil Aviation Administration, 14.12 million passengers were transported by international routes in the first quarter, which recovered to 78% of the same period in 2019. The data of China Aviation Association also shows that the number of international flights in the first quarter increased by 19.7% month on month, with an overall recovery rate of nearly 70%.

From the perspective of flight volume, flight steward data shows that the number of flights of China's civil aviation international routes in the first quarter was 130000, an increase of 19.7% compared with the fourth quarter of 2023, a decrease of 30.8% compared with the first quarter of 2019, and the overall recovery rate of civil aviation international reached 69.2%.

Among outbound destinations, flight steward data shows that Southeast Asia is still a popular destination, with flights accounting for 41.6%, and South Korea, Japan and Thailand rank in the top three; The flight recovery rate in West Asia, Central Asia and Africa has exceeded the level in 2019.

Since the first quarter, major airlines have added and encrypted many international and regional routes. For example, Hainan Airlines added Chongqing Milan international routes in March; China Eastern Airlines has encrypted routes from Shanghai Pudong to Los Angeles, Shanghai Pudong to Moscow, Shanghai Pudong to Tokyo Narita, Shanghai Pudong to Osaka, Kunming to Kuala Lumpur, Nanjing to Bangkok, and resumed routes from Taiyuan to Hong Kong in the regional market.

It is worth noting that the recovery and new opening of the "Belt and Road" routes have become the focus of the recovery of international routes. It is understood that China Southern Airlines officially opened the Beijing Daxing Riyadh international route on April 16, and China Eastern Airlines will also open the Shanghai Riyadh route on April 27.

Beijing Business Daily reporter learned from China Southern Airlines that up to now, China Southern Airlines has opened eight "Belt and Road" international routes to Almaty and Bishkek in Beijing Daxing, with 74 round-trip flights every week. In the near future, China Southern Airlines will also open routes to Beijing Daxing Dhaka.

The relevant person in charge of the Civil Aviation Administration also mentioned earlier that, in the next step, the Civil Aviation Administration will guide airlines to continue to increase the investment in transport capacity between China and countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" and international tourist source countries, and open more airline flights to better serve the national strategy and meet the travel needs of passengers. At the same time, various measures will be taken to strengthen the supervision of the use of air rights resources, improve the efficiency of the use of air rights resources, and promote the rapid recovery of international passenger flights.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Guan Zichen and Niu Qingyan