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Air China report Oct-2009 traffic

Direct News Source

In October, passenger business saw faster growth in domestic and regional markets.

Domestic and regional routes once again exhibited year-over-year double digit growth and traffic continued to grow on a month-over-month basis. International routes meanwhile saw year-over-year single digit growth in passenger traffic and volume. Cargo market continued to show signs of recovery, with traffic and volume showing solid year-over-year improvement. Despite domestic cargo market declined on a month-over-month basis, the growth trend in international and regional markets continued.

Passenger capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometers (ASK), increased by 6.8% year-over -year. Passenger traffic, measured by Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK), saw a higher growth of 11.3% during the month. Capacity on international routes was down by 1.8% year-over-year while RPK grew by 4.5%. Domestic and regional capacity rose by 12 and 19.7% year-over-year, respectively, with RPK up 15.7% and 14.2%, respectively. The passenger load factor was 81.6%, improved by 3.3 percentage points year-over-year. The international and domestic load factor up by 4.9 and 2.7 percentage points, to 82% and 81.9%, respectively. The regional passenger load factor was 72.4%, a decline of 3.5 percentage points. (Please note these figures do not include Air Macau).

Cargo capacity, measured by Available Freighter Tonne Kilometres (AFTK), increased by 7.8% compared with October last year. Cargo traffic, measured in Revenue Freighter Tonne Kilometres (RFTK), and the Tonnage Carried surged by 14.0% and 19.1% year-over-year, respectively. Cargo load factor improved to 57.1%, an increase of 3.1 percentage points year-over-year.

From October 25, the Company began its winter-spring schedule. During this period, the Company will add new routes of Chengdu-Zhuhai, Beijing-Daqing, Dazhou-Shenzhen in domestic market. In international market, the Company added Beijing-Tokyo (Haneda Airport),and Hangzhou-Beijing-Frankfurt routes, and increased frequency in European routes namely Beijing-Stockholm and Beijing-Rome routes. In addition, Air China launched four Air China Express routes namely Beijing to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen on October 25, making the total number of Air China Express routes to six.

In October, the Company's average jet fuel purchase price at international airports amounted to RMB4,438 per tonne, and the average purchase price of jet fuel for international flights at the top six Chinese airports was RMB4,657 per tonne, representing a 35% and 36% decline year-over-year, respectively. The Company's average jet fuel purchase price for domestic flights was RMB5,362 per tonne, a drop of 34% compared with October last year.

During the month, the Company purchased a total of 270,000 tonnes of jet fuel at an average purchase price of RMB4,985 per tonne, down 34% year-over-year.

Effective October 11, domestic jet fuel price decreased by RMB200 per tonne.