China Southern Airlines Co (中國南方航空) yesterday rolled out an “all you can fly” pass, becoming the latest in a fleet of cash-strapped carriers to join a promotional craze that analysts have said has helped revive a COVID-19-ravaged air travel market.
At least eight of China’s dozens of airlines have introduced similar deals since last month, often priced at about US$500 for in some cases unlimited flights.
Industry watchers have said that the packages have been a shot in the arm, with costs offset by otherwise empty seats being filled in a country where daily flights last month recovered to 80 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
Photo: AFP
The global aviation industry is keenly eyeing China as a pilot for air travel recovery trends, as the country reopened its economy months earlier than other places after managing to bring the pandemic mostly under control — at least for now.
However, You Luya (尤璐雅), transportation analyst at Bocom International Holdings Co (交銀國際控股), said that the promotional packages — ranging from unrestricted flights to an array of terms and conditions — can only stimulate demand when coronavirus risks are already sufficiently reduced.
“While these packages may work in domestic markets, we do not expect similar rollouts for outbound routes anytime soon,” she said.
The “Fly happily” deal launched by China Southern, the country’s biggest carrier by passengers, allows buyers to use passes for as many flights as they wish for destinations across the country from Aug. 26 to Jan. 6 next year for 3,699 yuan (US$529.03).
As with other deals, passholders also pay a small tax to the airline — about 50 yuan — per flight.
Meanwhile, China Eastern Airlines Corp’s (中國東方航空) 3,322 yuan “Fly as you wish” deal, launched last month, only applies to weekend travel.
Hainan Airlines Co’s (海南航空) 2,699 yuan package is only valid on flights to or from Hainan Province.
China Eastern has sold more than 100,000 passes, state media reported.
That helped boost passenger loads on its domestic routes to more than 75 percent on recent weekends, according to aviation data provider Variflight.
It is not just Chinese airlines that have jumped on the deals bandwagon to revive the travel industry.
Separately, Asian airlines last month carried only 724,000 international passengers, a 98 percent slump from a year earlier, as restrictions on movement suppressed air travel, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines said yesterday.
Average passenger load factor was just 36.3 percent, the association said in a statement.
Association director-general Subhas Menon said that the prospect of a recovery in the second half of the year is increasingly uncertain as governments grapple with a resurgence of infections and reimpose lockdowns.
“The industry is in a perilous condition,” he said. “Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region are rapidly depleting cash reserves and incurring massive losses,” Menon said.
Asia-Pacific airlines carried 61 million passengers in the first half of the year, down 68 percent from a year earlier, as travel demand evaporated in the second quarter, Menon added.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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