The three main Chinese airlines posted losses of more than 14 billion euros last year, penalized in their huge home market by the Covid zero policy and restrictions on foreign travel.
China has applied a very strict health policy against Covid-19 for almost three years with almost mandatory PCR tests, confinements and travel restrictions.
The country has also practically closed its borders between 2020 and 2023, while the Chinese could only travel abroad in case of compelling reason.
Air links between China and the rest of the world have been drastically reduced.
Two-month lockdown in Shanghai
In this context, China Eastern Airlines tripled its losses last year to 37.4 billion yuan (4.9 billion euros), the second Chinese company in terms of passengers announced Thursday.
In the spring of 2022, a two-month lockdown in Shanghai had all but shut down the two airports in the Chinese economic capital, where China Eastern is headquartered.
The company had also experienced the worst air disaster in China since 1994 last March, which dealt a severe blow to the company’s image.
One of its Boeing 737-800s plummeted before disintegrating against a mountainside in southern China, killing all 132 on board. The cause of this accident is still unknown.
For its part, Air China, China’s flagship airline, announced losses double that of 2021.
reopening in march
They amount to 38.6 billion yuan (5.1 billion euros) for all of 2022, compared to 16.6 billion yuan the previous year.
For its part, China Southern Airlines, the largest company in Asia by the size of its fleet, reported losses of 32.6 billion yuan (4.3 billion euros) on Tuesday.
They reached 12.1 billion yuan a year earlier.
After three years of restrictions, China finally resumed issuing tourist visas for foreigners in mid-March, while Chinese citizens can again leave their country for tourism from January.
But the number of international connections is still low for the moment and the prices are very high.
Source: BFM TV
