Asia, March 29, 2020 — cyberinktimes.com — The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) announced on Thursday that the international passenger demand in the region fell by 43.9% in February as a result of growing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. Preliminary traffic figures
showed that airline operations plunged due to the abrupt imposition of travel
bans across the globe, forcing most airlines to either reduce or totally halt
international flights.
Based on reports, the region’s
airlines collectively recorded a year-on-year drop in international passengers
carried to a combined 17 million for the previous month. The revenue passenger kilometers
(RPK) showed that demand fell by 34.8% while the available seat capacity narrowed
by 20.6%.
“Since February, we have seen
a further sharp deterioration in the overall situation…Overall, for the first
two months of the year, the number of international passengers traveling on
Asian airlines fell by 21% to 50 million passengers,” said AAPA director
general Andrew Herdman. He added that Asian airlines
are now coordinating with governments and private sectors to send “stranded
nationals” to their respective countries.
On a positive note, the demand
for air cargo has reportedly increased as demand for air shipments of
intermediate goods, food supplies and pharmaceutical products continues to
ascend worldwide. Asian airlines operate a huge
number of freighter aircraft and these account for more than one-third of
global air cargo movements.
In total, the international cargo load factor soared
by 6.5 percentage points to 60.3% in February. “Demand for air cargo remains
relatively unaffected, and every effort is being made to ensure that shipments
of critical relief supplies including medical equipment, and food products can
continue to be transported safely and efficiently around the world,” Herdman
said. The director general also
expressed gratitude to the governments who acted promptly to provide financial
support.
However, he noted that much more needs to be done to cope up because
the COVID-19 pandemic has posed operational and financial challenges to the airline
industry and other sectors of the economy.
