(Yicai Global) July 10 – Demand is gradually recovering in China's aviation market as pandemic prevention and control measures gain the upper hand and the sector’s losses accordingly shrank to CNY7.62 billion (USD 1.08 billion) last month, CNY17 billion less than when the pestilence broke out in earnest in February and a cool CNY3.8 billion under May’s losses.

The overall second-quarter hit the sector took was CNY34.25 billion, a CNY3.85 billion decrease from the first quarter, Jin Junhao a senior official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at a press conference the agency called today.

The impact of the epidemic on the civil aviation sector is still quite evident, however. Last month the whole industry in China completed 683,000 hours of passenger transport flights, 31.1 percent down on the year in the first half, Wu Shijie, deputy director of the Aviation Safety Office of the Civil Aviation Administration, told the press conference, adding the cumulative 3.83 million hours flown represented an annual 42.4 percent slump.

The sector completed 30.739 million passenger trips in a 42.4 percent per-year slide, Wu explained, adding domestic and international routes returned to 64.7 percent and 2.3 percent of their levels last month from the same time last year.

Some 150 million passengers traveled in the first half, only 45.8 percent of the volume in the same time last year, while the headcounts of domestic and international routes were only 48.6 percent and 23.5 percent as large.

Cargo transport recovered faster, Wu noted. The sector delivered 578,000 tons of cargo and mail in a mere 5.8 percent per-year decrease, while domestic and international routes have recovered to 92.1 percent and 98.6 percent of their levels at last year’s same period.

The aviation sector landed 2.997 million tons of cargo and mail in the first half, 85.2 percent of the same period last year. Domestic and international route traffic was 83.1 percent and 89.7 percent, respectively, of last year’s same time.

Editor: Ben Armour