Chinese Airlines Take Off in January as International Travel Surges

Passengers check in at the China Eastern Airlines counter on Jan. 20 in Nanjing Lukou International Airport in East China’s Jiangsu province. Photo: Yang Bo/China News Agency, VCG

China’s scrapping of its “zero-Covid” strategy late last year and the country’s reopening to the rest of the world has breathed life back into the country’s airlines, with four of the biggest carriers reporting a surge in passenger numbers in January, especially for international flights.

The recovery, if sustained, bodes well for Chinese airline companies’ profits this year after the civil aviation industry as a whole posted a loss of 216 billion yuan ($31.8 billion) in 2022, up from 84.3 billion yuan in 2021, data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) show.