Over the past weeks, airlines across the world have temporarily suspended most of their flights to Mainland China. Although many countries are still imposing travel bans on China, China’s airspace is now seeing a small uptick of international flights.
Take Scoot (Budget subsidiary of Singapore Airlines) as an example, the airlines suspended flights to Mainland China last month. As first reported by Mainly Miles, TR 180 has departed to Nanjing from Singapore today; the last flight was more than a month ago.
Here is The Reason
TR180 is currently operated by a B789, with 375 passenger seats on-board. Although none of these seats are filled, the cargo compartments are.
As explained by Reuters, air freights are skyrocketing – at least three times higher – as shippers are having a tough time to find a spot on cargo planes.
More companies are restarting their business in China starting this month, while deep flight cuts are limiting air cargo capacity. Nearly half of the air cargo is actually transported in the compartment holds of passenger planes, instead of dedicated cargo planes.
In Mainland China, new Covid-19 cases have dropped. Eighteen regions in Mainland China have cut emergency response level as of this Monday, traffic flows in big cities are also building up.
According to Freight Investor Service, cargo pricing on China-US routes had reached “abnormal highs” and intra-Asia traffic has risen by 22% over last week.
While this price surge will benefit the airlines, it is most likely not going to offset the revenue drop arisen from the slump in passenger traffic.
Featured Image: StraitsTimes