China’s biggest airlines could provide some much-needed encouragement for an aviation industry starved of good news when they report earnings later this week.
While the coronavirus will still likely saddle Air China Ltd., China Eastern Airlines Corp. and China Southern Airlines Co. with losses for the latest quarter, financial statements from the trio may point to a nascent recovery in air travel thanks to demand in their vast domestic market.
July traffic figures were promising, with passenger numbers for the three airlines rising about 25 percent from June as travel within China picked up. The trio flew a total of 22 million passengers domestically last month, more than 500 times as many flown at all by Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., which has no home market to fall back on. Revenue passenger kilometers also jumped, though the numbers remain far below a year ago, pre-pandemic.