JUNE 17TH, 2014

Air China Reports May Traffic Up 9.3%

Air China, China’s flag carrier, has recently released its performance statistics for May 2014, which shows 9.3% growth in both available seat kilometers (ASK) and revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), with overall passenger load factor keeping stable at 78.9%.

In May, the capacity input on domestic flights, international flights and regional flights increased by 3.8%, 20.6% and 14.5% respectively over last year. Passenger turnover climbed 9.3% year on year, among which domestic, regional and international RPK saw growth of 4.3%, 18.9% and 21.7%, respectively. Specifically, CA registered a 5.3% yearly growth in passenger volume to 6.6 million, among which those taking domestic flights increased 2.8% from a year earlier to 5.5 million and regional passenger traffic climbed 18.7% to 353,200, while international passenger traffic declined 20.3% to 727,600, according to the airline’s statistics.

As for cargo traffic, the cargo turnover and cargo volume for May saw apparent growth year on year but decreased monthly. AFTK (Available Freight Ton Kilometers) climbed 9.2% year on year, while RFTK rose 4.6% over a year earlier. Cargo volume grew 2.4% compared with the same period last year, with freight load factor down 2.6 percent year on year to 57.8%.

CA’s ASK in May increased by 9.3% year on year, which was lower than 10% for the first time in 2014. Low capacity growth would help the airline improve operation efficiency by fully utilizing current fleet.

In May 2014, the flag carrier received two new aircraft including a Boeing 737-800 and an Airbus A330-300 aircraft, and leased back a B767 and a B747-400F.