Asian Airlines suffer 98% slump in June passenger traffic

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 said.

Average passenger load factor was just 36.3%, AAPA said in a statement 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.”