Aviation sector eyes recovery in 2022

China's aviation sector will aim to turn losses into profits this year with an expected recovery to 85 percent of its pre-Covid volume of domestic passenger trips, the regulator Civil Aviation Administration of China said yesterday.

The sector has been mired in deep losses since Covid struck in early 2020, with China's three biggest airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, and China Southern Airlines, posting a combined loss of 32.5 billion yuan (HK$39.76 billion) in the first three quarters of 2021, after a 42 billion yuan loss in 2020.

The CAAC, in a work meeting for 2022, said air passenger trips would likely exceed 570 million this year, compared with about 660 million in 2019 before Covid.

China has been banking on the domestic market to drive a recovery in its aviation sector, while heavily curtailing the number of international flights to discourage travel.