[cwoodward]

Asia’s two major international airlines continued their strong post pandemic recovery in January with Singapore Airlines* carrying 2.1 million passengers a 15.6% increase on 2023 figures.

This while later recovering Cathay group sored to 2.02 million passengers with a strong 56.7% year on year increase in passenger traffic carrying more than 70,000 travellers a day over the month.
With Chinese New Year in February this year both airlines should again perform strongly in the current month

Other Asian airlines continue the recovery with Thai passenger numbers for the month at 1.16 million while JAL carried 570,000 according to media reports.

*I could find no figure for the month yet for SIAs low cost Scoot subsidiary

2 users thanked author for this post.

MarkivJ, Olneyflyer

[MarkivJ]

cwoodward – thanks for the update. As an aviation enthusiast, it’s always nice seeing airlines coming back to glory. Is it just me or is CX’s recovery a little behind SQ’s? SQ seems to be back in form but somehow I get the feeling CX is only half way there.

[cwoodward]

Yes MarkivJ you are I believe correct.
Cathay is almost 2 years behind SIA in its recovery as HKG was locked down for very much longer than was Singapore and reopened almost 2 years later.

1 user thanked author for this post.

MarkivJ

[AlanOrton1]

Cwoodward – do you mean HK opened up around 1 year after SG?

Not wishing to nitpick but it wasn’t until Q4 2021 that folk from the US & UK could travel quarantine free to SG.

(I think SQ group flew just north of 3m pax in January).

[AndrewinHK]

I am not sure how helpful comparisons are between CX and SQ, they of course were dealt completely different hands during COVID, in large part due to a difference in government policy and communication. Singapore was much more pragmatic and communicated very clearly policy and the unlock, Hong Kong much less so, and that of course tied the hands of Cathay and created issues that are taking much longer to unravel. I would say I think both carriers have done a good job in the interim, and structurally are building out to be much more resilient and profitable businesses.

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