Chinese airlines outperform foreign carriers on international routes – Firstpost

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is having an unexpected side effect on global aviation. The conflict has resulted in Chinese airlines gaining a significant lead over their foreign competitors on international routes.

Although international traffic from China is recovering slowly overall due to economic challenges and a preference for domestic travel, Chinese airlines are making significant inroads into the international market.

The Russian advantage for Chinese airlines

Airlines from Europe, the United States and other countries have been banned from using Russian airspace by Moscow or their own governments, or have chosen not to fly over Russia for safety reasons. This has resulted in longer flight times and higher operating costs for these airlines.

Chinese airlines do not have this problem because Beijing has good relations with Moscow. They continue to use the shorter northern routes across Russia’s vast airspace to reach Europe and North America, giving them cost and time advantages over Western airlines.

Therefore, they not only offer shorter flight times, but also cheaper tickets from China to abroad.

For example, British Airways’ flights from London to Beijing now take around 2.5 hours longer than China Southern’s daily flights on the same route, giving the Chinese airline a competitive advantage.

Western airlines reduce their operations

British Airways recently announced that the airline would discontinue its London-Beijing route for a year starting at the end of October, citing commercial reasons.

Likewise, Virgin Atlantic will suspend its London-Shanghai service indefinitely from the end of October due to longer flight times.

Airlines such as Qantas have withdrawn from routes such as Sydney-Shanghai, citing low demand and half-empty aircraft.

US airlines have also reduced their connections to China; flights between the two countries are currently only 20 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

Market shift triggers complaints

The shift in market shares is clearly visible: Chinese airlines now operate a higher proportion of international flights to and from China than before the pandemic.

Major U.S. airlines and aviation unions have raised their concerns with the U.S. government, arguing that Chinese airlines are unfairly benefiting from Beijing’s policies and Russia’s overflight advantage. They warn that if this growth continues unchecked, even more flights will be lost to Chinese airlines, further undermining the competitive balance in the global aviation market.

With contributions from Reuters