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Bloomberg
Asian airlines carried only 724,000 international passengers in June, a 98% slump from a year earlier, as restrictions on movement suppressed air travel, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) said.
Average passenger load factor was just 36.3%, AAPA said in a statement on Tuesday. The group’s director general, Subhas Menon, said the prospect of a recovery in the second half of the year is increasingly uncertain as governments grapple with a resurgence of infections and reimpose lockdowns.
“The industry is in a perilous condition,†he said. “Airlines in the Asia Pacific region are rapidly depleting cash reserves and incurring massive losses.â€
Asia Pacific airlines carried 61 million passengers in the first half of the year, down 68% from a year earlier as travel demand evaporated in the second quarter, Menon said.
A Bloomberg gauge of Asia Pacific airline stocks has slumped 35% since mid-January, just before the virus emerged and carriers started to adjust their services.