Asian airlines ferried only 724,000 international passengers in June

Hong Kong: Asian airlines carried only 724,000 international passengers in June, a 98 per cent slump from a year earlier, as restrictions on movement suppressed air travel, the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines said.

Average passenger load factor was just 36.3 per cent, AAPA said in a statement. The group's director-general, Subhas Menon, said the prospect of a recovery in the second-half of the year is increasingly uncertain as governments grapple with a resurgence of infections and reimpose lockdowns.

"The industry is in a perilous condition," he said. "Airlines in the Asia-Pacific region are rapidly depleting cash reserves and incurring massive losses."

Asia-Pacific airlines carried 61 million passengers in the first-half of the year, down 68 per cent from a year earlier as travel demand evaporated in the second quarter.