[ET Net News Agency, 16 September 2021] Air China Limited (00753) said in August 2021,
due to local sporadic cases and pandemic prevention policy, the group recorded decreases
in combined passenger traffic (measured by revenue passenger kilometres (the RPK)) as
compared to the same period last year and last month. Passenger capacity (measured by
available seat kilometres (the ASK)) recorded a year-on-year decrease of 40.6% and
passenger traffic recorded a year-on-year decrease of 53.1%. For domestic routes,
passenger capacity decreased by 41.5% and passenger traffic decreased by 54.2%, as
compared to the same period last year. For international routes, passenger capacity
decreased by 35.1% and passenger traffic decreased by 27.6%, as compared to the same
period last year. There has been an increase on the passenger capacity and passenger
traffic on regional routes as compared to the same period last year.
The overall passenger load factor was 57.6%, representing a decrease of 15.4 percentage
points as compared to the same period last year. The passenger load factor decreased by
16.1 percentage points for domestic routes and increased by 6.0 percentage points for
international routes as compared to the same period last year, and the passenger load
factor for regional routes recorded a year-on-year increase of 28.5 percentage points.
In terms of cargo operations, cargo capacity (measured by available freight tonne
kilometres (the AFTK)) decreased by 10.3% year on year. Cargo and mail traffic (measured
by revenue freight tonne kilometres (the RFTK)) increased by 16.2%, the volume of cargo
and mail carried decreased by 9.6% as compared to the same period last year. The cargo
load factor was 49.5%, representing a year-on-year increase of 11.3 percentage points.
(RC)