CHINA. China Eastern Airlines Corp, China’s second largest carrier, said on Wednesday that its passenger traffic plunged -83.9% in May, year-on-year, as SARS devastated its business.
The Shanghai-based airline carried just 162,540 passengers in May. As reported earlier, its larger rival, China Southern Airlines Co said it carried -83% fewer passengers in the same month as the country’s SARS epidemic deterred leisure and business travel.
However, SARS is now in steep decline in China. Yesterday the World Health Organization reported just one new case in mainland China (plus one each in Hong Kong and Taiwan). Mainland China has been responsible for 5,329 of the 8,435 cases worldwide and 343 of the 789 deaths.
Airlines and travel-related businesses are hopeful of a strong second half recovery once traveller confidence that China is a safe destination returns. But it may not be till the final quarter than any real upturn occurs. And that is a long time off for the country’s duty free retail business.
The traffic downturn was reflected by Beijing Capital International Airport Co, which said earlier today that passenger traffic fell -86.5% in May compared with a year earlier. Traffic on international routes fell -87.5%.
Flights to Hong Kong and Macau were worst hit, with passenger traffic shrinking by an incredible -91.3% as the SARS outbreak reached its peak.
A World Health Organization travel advisory is still in place on Beijing and other parts of the country, but an advisory on Hong Kong and the southern Chinese province of Guangdong was lifted late last month.
