15-Feb-2011 10:31 AM

Air China reports Jan-2011 traffic

Direct News Source

Passenger traffic continued to display positive year-over-year growth across the board in January 2011. Month-over-month, domestic traffic experienced stronger growth, supported by travel demand during Spring Festival, and international traffic was marginally higher, but there was a slight drop in regional traffic. In terms of the cargo business, both Revenue Freighter Tonne Kilometres (RFTK) and freighter tonnage carried continued to show solid year-over-year growth in all markets. Month-over-month, cargo carried on domestic routes continued to rise slightly, contrasting with a decline on both international and regional routes.

Passenger capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometers (ASK), grew 9.3% year-over-year. Passenger traffic, measured by Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK), rose by 11.6%. Capacity on international routes increased by 13.4% year-over-year, with RPK rising by 8.9%. Capacity on domestic routes increased by 6.4%, while RPK rose 13.2% during the same period. Capacity on regional routes increased by 15.5%, with RPK growing 16.4%. The passenger load factor was 78.6%, up 1.7 percentage points year-over-year. The passenger load factor for domestic and regional routes increased by 4.8 and 0.6 percentage points year-over-year, but international routes saw a 3.2 percentage point decline in load factor. (Please note that Shenzhen Airlines and Air Macau are excluded from these figures.)

Cargo capacity, measured in Available Freighter Tonne Kilometers (AFTK), rose 9.9% year-over-year in January. Revenue Freighter Tonne Kilometers (RFTK) and freighter tonnage carried increased by 14.5% and 13.2%, respectively, compared with January 2010. The cargo load factor improved to 58.8% in January, an increase of 2.3 percentage points year-over-year.

On 11 January, the company launched a new flight from Guangzhou to Guangyuan (three times a week).

During the month, Air China purchased a total of 273,000 tonnes of jet fuel at an average price of RMB5,229 per tonne, a year-over-year increase of 16%. The average jet fuel purchase price at international airports was RMB5,804 per tonne, and the average purchase price of jet fuel for international flights at the top six Chinese airports was RMB6,048 per tonne, representing 20% and 18% year-over-year increases, respectively. The average jet fuel purchase price for domestic flights was RMB6,449 per tonne, an increase of 14% compared with January last year.