Asian Airlines suffer 98% slump in June passenger traffic

Asian airlines carried only 724,000 international passengers in June, a 98% slump from a year earlier, as restrictions on movement suppressed air travel, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines said.

Average passenger load factor was just 36.3%, AAPA said in a statement Tuesday. The group’s director general, Subhas Menon, said the prospect of a recovery in the second half of the year is increasingly uncertain as governments grapple with a resurgence of infections and reimpose lockdowns.

“The industry is in a perilous condition,” he said. “Airlines in the Asia Pacific region are rapidly depleting cash reserves and incurring massive losses.”

Asia Pacific airlines carried 61 million passengers in the first half of the year, down 68% from a year earlier as travel demand evaporated in the second quarter, Menon said.

A Bloomberg gauge of Asia Pacific airline stocks has slumped 35% since mid-January, just before the virus emerged and carriers started to adjust their services.