Empty seats
Some of Asia’s leading full-service airlines have reported worrying declines in passenger load factors in August, as demand continues to fail to live up to expectations.
The outlook for premium demand is also wilting as global financial turmoil spreads. Lower load factors and lower prices spell an uncomfortable mix, even if fuel prices are dropping.
SIA load factor dropped 2.2 percentage points year-on-year to 79.4%.
Air China’s international load factors deopped 13.8 percentage points to 69.9%.
China Southern had an 8.7 percentage point reduction in its overall load factor last month.
China Eastern’s international passenger numbers fell by 32.9%.
China Eastern’s domestic passenger dropped 21.5% last month and load factors dipped 8.7 percentage points to 63.6%.
Cathay Pacific, carried just 0.5% more passengers in August year-on-year, despite growing capacity by 14%.
The latest Asian Development Bank forecasts point to continued reasonably strong GDP growth figures in China and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) also expects traffic growth in the Asia Pacific region to recover somewhat next year.
Source: The Australian
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