China’s air traffic starts to recover in March
Commercial air traffic in China picked up in March from a month earlier, but was still down by more than half from levels before the coronavirus outbreak, China's civil aviation administration (CAAC) said.
An average of 6,533 civil aviation flights operated each day in March, 20.5pc more than in February. But last month's flight volume was only about 42pc of pre-outbreak levels, the CAAC said.
The increase in flight activity was concentrated in southwest and northwest China, as well as the Yangtze and Pearl river delta manufacturing hubs. China started to lift some coronavirus restrictions in March as the outbreak began to ease.
China's apparent demand for jet fuel fell to a more than two-year low of 621,000 b/d in January-February, according to the latest government figures. Demand was likely down by 54pc in February, but the year-on-year drop narrowed last month, according to estimates from the China Petroleum Planning and Engineering Institute (CPPEI) think-tank, an arm of state-owned energy firm CNPC.
The CAAC last week imposed sharp restrictions on international flights in and out of China. There were just 108 international flights planned for the first week after the restrictions were imposed — 88 by domestic companies and 20 by foreign carriers.
CAAC said 102 passenger flights were converted to cargo flights on 29 March, when the new curbs took effect, to make up for a lack of capacity on all-cargo aircraft. China's international cargo flights totalled 1,195 this week, up by 18pc from the average of 1,014 flights/week operated before the coronavirus hit.
By Sarah Giam
source: Argus Media
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