As of the evening of January 24, China’s three major state-owned airlines, Air China, China Southern Airlines, and China Eastern Airlines, have successively announced their expected losses for the 2024 fiscal year. The combined losses of the three airlines reached as high as 6.4 billion Chinese yuan.
Specifically, Air China expects a net loss attributable to the parent company of approximately 160 million to 240 million yuan in 2024, compared to a loss of 1.046 billion yuan in the same period of the previous year.
China Southern Airlines expects a net loss attributable to the parent company between 1.25 billion and 1.87 billion yuan, compared to a loss of 4.209 billion yuan in the previous year.
China Eastern Airlines expects a net loss attributable to the parent company of around 3.3 billion to 4.3 billion yuan, compared to a loss of 8.168 billion yuan in the previous year. China Eastern Airlines suffered the highest losses among the three airlines.
It is estimated that the three major airlines are expected to have a combined loss of 4.71 billion to 6.41 billion yuan in 2024, compared to a total loss of 13.423 billion yuan in 2023.
Regarding the reasons for the expected losses in 2024, all three major airlines mentioned factors such as intensified competition in the domestic market, insufficient demand for public and business travel, and exchange rate fluctuations.
Song Zhiyong, director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, revealed at the beginning of last year’s civil aviation work conference that the industry significantly reduced losses by 187.2 billion yuan in 2023. With the Chinese civil aviation industry in 2022 reaching losses of 216 billion yuan, this indicates that the industry’s losses in 2023 were approximately 28.8 billion yuan.
On January 13, the China Air Transport Association held a meeting to communicate information from member units in the fourth quarter of 2024, mentioning that the average ticket prices in the economy class of the aviation passenger market in 2024 decreased by more than 10% compared to 2023.