Asia air travel rebound buoyed by 2023 forward bookings

A REBOUND in Asian airline travel is “doing well” going into 2023 due to forward bookings, Subhas Menon, director-general of the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (AAPA), said Thursday (Nov 10).

Speaking on the sidelines of the group’s meeting in Bangkok, he told reporters that airlines underestimating pent-up demand had led to higher ticket prices, though supply was catching up, and airlines faced cost headwinds from oil prices and higher interest rates.

Travel in the Asia-Pacific region recovered more slowly than other parts of the world because of prolonged border closures, though Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan recently reopened, leaving mainland China as the major outlier.

Despite that, some carriers like Singapore Airlines and Qantas Airways are reporting record levels of profitability and are returning cash to shareholders, based on strong pent-up demand and constrained supply, and despite the high oil prices.

Many Asian airlines like Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways , Taiwan’s China Airlines, and Korean Air relied on cargo for the majority of their revenue during the depths of the pandemic because of the depressed passenger market.

However, the cargo market has weakened relative to last year, amid global economic shocks arising from inflation, China’s zero-Covid policy, and the war in Ukraine. REUTERS