Korean Air Doubles Passenger Demand from China Operations

Due to expanded capacity to China, Korean Air has reported that passenger demand to and from the neighboring country more than doubled in the first two months of this year.

The airline reported a 112.8 per cent year-on-year jump in passenger demand to 428.9 million revenue passenger kilometer (RPK) – a unit to calculate the number of paying passengers flying with the airline - compared to 201.6 million RPK in the same period last year.

In the first two months, capacity on the airline’s China operations doubled to 612.6 million available seat kilometer (ASK) – a unit represents passenger capacity.

The load factor for China routes also rose 4.2 percentage points to 70 per cent in the first two months.

Apart from China, Korean Air also saw strong growth in passenger demand in Japan and Europe/Middle East. RPK on its Japan operations grew 15.2 per cent year-on-year to 529.5 million, where demand from Europe/Middle East rose 17.4 per cent to 1.084 billion RPK compared to a year earlier. International passenger traffic in general rose 2.7 per cent to 6.97 billion RPK. 

Domestic passenger traffic saw a 21.9 per cent drop to 543.1 million RPK in the first two months due to route restructuring. Overall passenger demand for Korean Air rose 0.4 per cent to 7.51 billion RPK. 

China also became the growth engine of Korean Air’s cargo business. Cargo volume to and from China surged 277.3 per cent year-on-year to 44.9 million freight tonne kilometer (FTK) – a unit representing the freight volume for airlines. Meanwhile, cargo capacity rose 317.6 per cent to 75.8 million available freight tonne kilometer (AFTK). 

Overall freight volume in the first two months grew 2.5 per cent to 1.23 billion RPK, as the Lunar New Year Holiday in February slowed demand. Overall cargo volume in February dropped 4.5 per cent to 610.5 million FTK.

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