“China’s three largest state-owned airlines are rapidly expanding routes and increasing capacity to Europe, taking advantage of the cost advantage of being able to fly through Russian airspace.”, — write: epravda.com.ua
China’s three largest state-owned airlines are rapidly expanding routes and increasing capacity to Europe, taking advantage of the cost advantage of being able to fly through Russian airspace. This was reported by the Financial Times newspaper. Western carriers including Scandinavian Airlines, Lufthansa, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have significantly reduced direct flights to China in 2024 due to the high costs of having to fly around Russia. Moscow has banned most European airlines from using its airspace in 2022 in response to Western sanctions imposed after a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This has led to longer flights to Asian destinations, particularly China, and higher fuel costs.Advertisement: Chinese airlines that were not affected by the ban have rushed to fill the vacuum by increasing flights and offering cheaper tickets, despite continuing financial losses. “European carriers simply cannot compete,” said David Yu, an aviation expert at New York’s Shanghai University. According to DBS analyst Jason Sum, passenger capacity between China and Western Europe on the three major Chinese carriers — Air China, China Eastern and China Southern — was 18% higher in October 2024 than in the same month in 2019.Advertisement: Number of flights of these airlines to the UK, Spain and Italy in the first nine months of 2024 increased by 25-45% compared to in 2019, reports the consulting company Ishka. Chinese airlines are offering prices that are 5% to 35% lower than European carriers’ fares for direct flights between China and Western Europe, thanks to savings on routes via Russia, UBS analyst Eric Lin said. European carriers complain about unfair competition. Lufthansa, for example, said Chinese airlines have an “excessive advantage” because they get more government support, lower costs and the ability to fly through Russia. Meanwhile, American carriers managed to limit the number of flights to China in order to restrain the expansion of Chinese companies in the American market.