This month's webinar focuses on the North-East Asia market where there have been some fascinating developments. As peak season approaches, how are some of the biggest and busiest aviation markets in the world such as China, Japan and South Korea performing? John Grant and Deirdre Fulton were joined by Gary Bowerman, director of Check-In Asia and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Arlt, founder and director of COTRI - China Outbound Tourism Institute.
Having taken the usual look at global capacity - which is climbing slowly but steadily - the panel moved on to regional trends in North-East Asia.
Deirdre explained that global airline capacity in the region (domestic + international) for the year to date is now sitting 5% above where it was in 2019, and +13% on the same period in 2023. Noting that had we had four or five years of growth, the number would be significantly bigger, John adds that many airlines are being hampered by lengthy waits for delivery of new aircraft.
Of the major country markets in North-East Asia, only China has made a full recovery and moved into growth vs the 2019 period, though Gary explains that the pandemic's impact is still affecting this market and that supply and demand patterns are very different to in previous years, making forecasting difficult.
As the webinar moved along there was more discussion around:
- Fast growth in China's domestic market, concentrated around the biggest cities.
- The importance of China's outbound market for neighbouring countries Japan, South Korea and Chinese Taipei.
- The cost to European carriers of routing flights to avoid Russian overflying.
- And much more.
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