Asia's aviation industry continues to seize up: a consequence of the borders still hermetically sealed in a number of countries such as China, Taiwan and Japan. In addition the Covid resurgence in this part of the world - Macau is in confinement for the first time, for example -, longer flight times on certain air routes due to the Russian overflight ban. As a result soaring international tariffs which is hampering a serious recovery.
The International Air Transport Association IATA estimates that passenger traffic will exceed 2019 levels in 2023 for North America, 2024 for Europe and 2025 for Asia.
" China shows no sign of relaxing its zero COVID strategy" notes IATA in a press release. Le Asia-Pacific international traffic is expected to reach 68% of pre-pandemic levels in 2022due to the slow pace at which travel restrictions are being lifted, predicts IATA.
Analysis of the data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser shows that overall capacity to, from and within Asia did reach 164.7 million seats in July 2022. This represents an increase of 22.6 % compared with the same month in 2021. And by 16.2 % compared with June 2022. However, this figure remains nearly 20% less than the number of seats in July 2019.
Dominance of domestic traffic
Further analysis reveals that this comeback is mainly due to domestic traffic.
This represented 82.3 % of available capacity in July. It reached 99.5 % of capacity offered in July 2019 - a return to normal. On the other hand, international capacities are reaching 27.6 million seats. This represents 3.9 million more seats put on the market than in June 2022. But the figures speak for themselves: supply remains 59.3 % lower than in July 2019.
The Chinese government's much-vaunted Zero Covid policy continues to have disastrous consequences for international routes from that country. Hong Kong is bearing the brunt of the consequences. Hong Kong airport ranked six times in the top 10 most important international routes in 2019. The Chinese platform only appears once in the rankings in July 2022, on the Hong Kong-Taipei route.
His place was taken by Singapore. The airport appears six times in the top 10 most important international routes. The policy of reopening the financial metropolis is bearing fruit. In the same ranking, we note the total absence of Japan…
Of the top 10 routes in terms of seat capacity, only three segments are up on 2019: Mumbai (Bombay)-Dubai; Delhi-Dubai and Singapore-Sydney.
Top 10 international routes in Asia-Pacific in terms of seat capacity (July 2022)
| 2022 ranking (2019) | Line | Seats 07/19 | Seats 07/22 | Difference |
| 1 (2) | Kuala Lumpur-Singapore | 478 206 | 294 788 | -38,4% |
| 2 (29) | Mumbai-Dubai | 194 972 | 236 448 | +21,3% |
| 3 (1) | Hong Kong-Taipei | 672 703 | 234 862 | -65,1% |
| 4 (21) | Manila-Singapore | 235 336 | 201 180 | -14,5% |
| 5 (8) | Bangkok-Singapore | 324 650 | 200 299 | -38,3% |
| 6 (44) | Delhi-Dubai | 172 836 | 197 352 | +14,2% |
| 7 (3) | Jakarta-Singapore | 468 069 | 185 748 | -60,3% |
| 8 (38) | Singapore-Sydney | 177 324 | 177 558 | +0,1% |
| 9 (19) | Bangkok-Seoul | 245 369 | 174 426 | -28,9% |
| 10 (33) | Saigon-Singapore | 191 990 | 158 764 | -17,3% |
(Source: OAG)
