China’s biggest budget carrier adds to chorus of weak air demand

Spring Airlines Co., China’s largest budget carrier, says international air travel remains weak and is stunting its recovery from Covid, even as peers globally struggle to keep up with demand.

“We’re waiting for stronger demand to come,” Spring Airlines’ Vice-President Zhang Wu’an said at the Aviation Festival Asia in Singapore. For Spring, which operates an all-Airbus SE 117-strong fleet across China, international capacity is at just 20% of pre-Covid levels, compared to 80% for domestic.

Zhang said Chinese airlines still face many restrictions that airlines in other countries aren’t subject to now that Covid has all but receded. China was one of the last places on Earth to finally relax pandemic measures and move away from a strict Covid zero policy, only opening its international borders earlier this year.

Labor shortages, as well as volatility in oil prices from the war in Ukraine, may also impact China’s aviation recovery, Zhang said, adding that he thinks international outbound travel could take as long as a year or more to make a full comeback.

Spring’s cautious sentiment echoes others’ views on China, like Cebu Air Inc. CEO Mike Szucs, who said the Philippine carrier wasn’t seeing massive demand from Chinese tourists due mainly to administrative challenges like expired passports.

Separately, Zhang said Shanghai-based Spring is planning on adding around 10 new planes annually into its fleet. The carrier currently has 30 remaining Airbus orders unfulfilled. For 2023, however, it only expects to add five or six planes, again because of labor constraints.

Longer term, Spring has much bolder ambitions. China’s aviation market, while slower to recover from Covid, is still the world’s second biggest after the US.

Airbus scored one of its largest-ever wins from China in July when the nation’s big three state-owned carriers — China Eastern Airlines Corp., China Southern Airlines Co. and Air China Ltd. — ordered 292 A320neo-family aircraft in a $37 billion deal. Xiamen Airlines Co. followed in September with a $4.8 billion transaction for 40 of the single-aisle jets.

“Maybe 100, 200, 300 or more” planes, Zhang said, when asked about Spring’s future fleet plans. “I couldn’t say the exact number but I’m sure 300 to 400 will work.”