China-US flights struggle to fill seats amid high prices, visa issues and cheaper stopovers
- Geopolitics and less business travel underpin struggles to restore flights to pre-pandemic levels as US falls to 13th place among China’s top international markets
Direct flights between China and the United States are outpacing market demand despite cautious and incremental moves to restore the routes to pre-Covid levels.
Planes are flying without full passenger loads as travellers find it more difficult or simply not worthwhile to visit the other side – be it because visas are harder to come by or because their trans-Pacific business may be in a slump – and there is a growing preference for cheaper and more circuitous routes.
Passenger loads on direct China-US flights have reached 75 per cent this summer, said Li Hanming, a China-based aviation analyst and consultant. The average passenger load on international flights was 85 per cent as of June, according to the International Air Transport Association.
The frequency of flights between China and the US in July stood at a mere 23.6 per cent of what was seen in July 2019, noted British aviation data firm OAG, with seat occupancy at 25 per cent compared with five years ago.
The China-US market had made up 7 per cent of a 75 per cent overall decline in weekly seats in May compared with May 2019, according to CAPA-Centre for Aviation, a research consultancy based in Australia.
OAG analysts said they saw little change in that demand during the June-July summer travel wave.