In 2023, China's civil aviation industry ushered in a glimmer of light in the face of adversity. Song Zhiyong, director of the Civil Aviation Administration, revealed an exciting news at a recent work conference: last year, the industry-wide loss narrowed sharply to nearly 30 billion yuan. This figure is undoubtedly a huge improvement compared with the previous year's loss of 216 billion yuan, indicating that the industry is slowly but surely climbing from the abyss.
However, this bright spot cannot completely hide the difficult challenges that the civil aviation industry still faces. In the three years of the epidemic, the industry has accumulated losses of nearly 400 billion yuan, and this heavy burden is still on the shoulders of every practitioner. In 2023, despite the significant recovery of the domestic route market, international routes will continue to struggle. This gap directly affects the overall profitability of the civil aviation industry.
In 2023, the passenger volume of domestic routes has exceeded the pre-epidemic level, with an increase of 15%, which is an achievement to celebrate. However, when we set our sights on the broader international market, the annual passenger traffic and cargo and mail traffic volume only recovered to 93% of 20199% and 976%。The resumption of international passenger flights is only 37 percent of pre-pandemic levels5%, which limits the overall speed of recovery for the industry.
Regrettably, even with the rapid recovery of the domestic market, the overall profitability of civil aviation in the first three quarters of 2023 was offset by a large loss in the fourth quarter. This shift has exposed the instability and seasonal fluctuations in the recovery of the civil aviation market.
Looking ahead to 2024, the Civil Aviation Authority has set an ambitious goal for the industry – to achieve overall profitability. The achievement of this goal depends on the continued growth of the domestic passenger market and the further recovery of international routes. The Civil Aviation Authority expects this year's load factor, load factor and daily aircraft utilisation to return to 2019 levels, which will be a challenge but also full of opportunities.
Facing 2024, China's civil aviation industry stands at a new starting point. Although the haze of the epidemic has not completely dissipated, every step forward in the industry is accumulating strength for the ultimate victory. Against the backdrop of the ever-changing global economic and political landscape, whether China's civil aviation can transform from losses to profits in the new year will be the ultimate test of the resilience, innovation and resilience of the entire industry.