A new outbreak of coronavirus cases in China, particularly in Beijing, is slowing down the recovery of the country’s aviation sector, according to the latest flight tracking data from Cirium.
The travel data and analytics company recorded a 0.5% decline in tracked scheduled passenger jet flights by Chinese operators for June 16, 2020, compared with June 9, 2020.
Of the country’s largest carriers, Beijing-based Air China appears to be affected most. It operated approximately 730 flights on June 16, versus nearly 900 on the same day a week earlier.
Meanwhile, schedule and status data for June 17 for the whole of China showed a total of 2,500 flights were removed or cancelled, while just over 9,200 flights operated.
On the equivalent day a week earlier, nearly 400 additional flights were flown, while the total number of scheduled flights was roughly the same.
May 2020 was the first-ever month in which Chinese operators flew more scheduled passenger jet flights than their US counterparts, however current trends suggest this position could be reversed in the coming weeks.
