DATA SPOTLIGHT: China Eastern Airlines

20 April, 2020

This year The Blue Swan Daily will feature some of the leading airlines, airports and country markets for air travel. Here, using the extensive profile insights available to CAPA - Centre for Aviation members to deliver a data snapshot, we look at China Eastern Airlines, another of the major state supported carriers in China.

Right now China Eastern Airlines is ranked as the third largest carrier in the world by capacity and fourth by flight frequency. That clearly highlights the current operational landscape when you consider its schedule for this week is less than half that which it offered this time last year. The airline - like everyone else - has been hit hard by the covid-19 pandemic. This hit the Chinese carriers before any other resulting in a tough 1Q. For China Eastern passenger traffic fell -57.1% year-on-year to 13.7 million, with domestic levels down -56.9%, international down -54.5% and regional down -72.7%.

The SkyTeam alliance member has boosted its domestic flying as China has released many of its domestic restrictions, but international flights remain impacted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China's (CAAC) current 'one airline, one route, once a week' policy. For May-2020 the airline and its Shanghai Airlines subsidiary plan to operate 20 international routes on a weekly basis, 16 departing from Shanghai Pudong, three from Kunming and one from Nanjing.

ABOUT
Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines is one of China's 'big three' state-owned airlines, with hubs at Shanghai's Pudong and Hongqiao airports, as well as Kunming Airport in southwest China. The airline operates a fleet of Airbus, Boeing, Embraer and Bombardier aircraft to support an extensive network, serving over 350 domestic routes and 40 international destinations, including cities in Australia, Europe, Korea, Japan, North America and Southeast Asia. China Eastern merged with Shanghai Airlines in 2010 and joined China Southern in the SkyTeam Alliance in Jun-2011.

GLOBAL RANKING (as at 20-Apr-2020)

NETWORK MAP (as at 20-Apr-2020)

DESTINATIONS (as at 20-Apr-2020)

ANNUAL PASSENGER TRAFFIC (2010 - 2020YTD)

CAPACITY SNAPSHOT (versus same week last year)

ANNUAL CAPACITY (2012-2020*)(NOTE:The values for this year are at least partly predictive up to 6 months and may be subject to change)

WEEKLY DOMESTIC CAPACITY (2017 - 2020*)

WEEKLY INTERNATIONAL CAPACITY (2017 - 2020*)

CAPACITY SPLIT BETWEEN DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS (w/c 20-Apr-2020)

LARGEST NETWORK POINT (w/c 20-Apr-2020)

BUSIEST DOMESTIC ROUTES BY CAPACITY (w/c 20-Apr-2020)

LARGEST INTERNATIONAL MARKETS BY COUNTRY (w/c 20-Apr-2020)

BUSIEST INTERNATIONAL ROUTES BY CAPACITY (w/c 20-Apr-2020)

AVERAGE FLIGHT LENGTH (w/c 20-Apr-2020)

FLEET SUMMARY (as at 20-Apr-2020)

AVERAGE FLEET AGE (as at 20-Apr-2020)

AIRCRAFT OWNERSHIP SPLIT (as at 20-Apr-2020)

MORE INSIGHT...

Coronavirus: China offers to pay airlines to return to the air

US-China aviation market: open skies remain overcast

UK-China airlines: Virgin Atlantic to join AF-KLM/China Eastern JV

Chinese airlines: rapid international growth impacts foreign airlines