(Yicai Global) Jan. 11 -- China’s air passenger traffic did not recover as much as expected last year due to the ongoing global pandemic, according to the country’s aviation regulator.

Air passenger numbers rose to 440 million in 2021, or 66.8 percent of the pre-pandemic volume, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said at an annual work meeting yesterday. That was 5.5 percentage points up on 2020, but below the 90 percent the CAAC had forecast early last year.

The regulator expects the figure to reach about 85 percent this year, helping airlines swing back into the black. Carriers have been struggling since Covid-19 broke out, with many likely to report a loss for a second year in a row.

To boost their financial performance, the CAAC called on airlines to transport 570 million passengers this year, 104 billion ton-kilometers of freight, and 7.8 million tons of cargo and mail.

They moved 85.7 billion tkm of freight last year, or 66.3 percent of 2019’s volume and 7.3 points higher than in 2020, and 7.2 million tons of cargo and mail, or 97.2 percent of the amount before Covid and 8.2 points up on the year before.

The 10 largest airlines lost a combined CNY12 billion (USD1.9 billion) in the third quarter of last year, which is normally a peak flying season, and CNY31.5 billion in the first nine months. Only low-budget Spring Airlines turned a third-quarter profit. And fourth-quarter earnings are forecast to be lower than a year earlier due to the resurgence of Covid-19 cases and new variants.

China’s government acted to support airlines last year and help them cut nearly CNY10 billion in operating costs, the CAAC said. But industry insiders told Yicai Global that the policies are utterly inadequate as carriers are losing tens of millions and even hundreds of millions of yuan a day.

Some private airlines failed last year and were sold. Conglomerate HNA Group underwent a restructuring and its air transport arm Hainan Airlines Holding, China’s fourth most-valuable carrier, was taken over by chemicals and steel producer Fangda Group.

Local governments have also acted, taking over regional carriers Qingdao Airlines and Ruili Airlines, with the latter relocating its head office from Yunnan province to the more developed Jiangsu province.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione