After the summer season of 100 million seats plus a week, global airline capacity has now fallen back to 97.3 million seats this week as airlines ease back the throttles on production, well that’s the headline story…
China has extended lockdown in some areas of Chengdu to try to contain a Covid outbreak, with 157 reported cases of Covid in the last few days, this has resulted in a 14% reduction in capacity – a loss of 1.9 million seats in the market. Last week China’s airlines reported losses for the first six months of the year – it’s hardly surprising when they can’t have any idea what they will be operating from week to week across their domestic networks. China’s zero-Covid strategy is frustrating airlines around the world but is unlikely to change anytime soon as the winter season approaches.
Another sign of madness this week is the announcement of the preferred candidate to acquire ITA Airways, formerly Alitalia, and still (judging by sightings at London…
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