[ET Net News Agency, 18 October 2021] Air China Limited (00753) said in September 2021,
the group recorded a year-on-year decrease but a month-on-month increase in combined
passenger traffic (measured by revenue passenger kilometres (the RPK)). Passenger capacity
(measured by available seat kilometres (the ASK)) recorded a year-on-year decrease of 17%
and a month-on-month increase of 46.3%, and passenger traffic recorded a year-on-year
decrease of 27.6% and a month-on-month increase of 67.6%. For domestic routes, passenger
capacity decreased by 16.6% as compared to the same period last year and increased by
49.0% as compared to last month. Passenger traffic decreased by 28.3% as compared to the
same period last year and increased by 71.1% as compared to last month. For international
routes, passenger capacity decreased by 48.1% and 20.3% and passenger traffic decreased by
30.8% and 17.5% as compared to the same period last year and last month, respectively.
Passenger capacity on regional routes increased by 113.2% and 54.5% as compared to the
same period last year and last month, respectively, and passenger traffic recorded an
increase of 528.9% and 84.9% as compared to the same period last year and last month,
respectively. The overall passenger load factor was 66.0%, representing a decrease of 9.7
percentage points as compared to the same period last year and an increase of 8.4
percentage points as compared to last month. The passenger load factor decreased by 10.8
percentage points year on year and increased by 8.6 percentage points month on month for
domestic routes, and increased by 14.9 percentage points and 2.1 percentage points for
international routes as compared to the same period last year and last month,
respectively. The passenger load factor for regional routes recorded a year-on-year
increase of 31.9 percentage points and a month-on-month increase of 7.9 percentage points.
In terms of cargo operations, cargo capacity (measured by available freight tonne
kilometres (the AFTK)) decreased by 10.7% year on year and increased by 13.5% month on
month. Cargo and mail traffic (measured by revenue freight tonne kilometres (the RFTK))
increased by 4.4% and 6.6% as compared to the same period last year and last month,
respectively. The cargo load factor was 46.5%, representing a year-on-year increase of 6.7
percentage points and a month-on-month decrease of 3.0 percentage points. (RC)