Large European airline holdings are losing the air transportation market to Asia, losing out to its competitors from China and the Middle East.
From October 26, British Airways will stop flights from London to Beijing for at least one year, Bloomberg reports, citing a statement from the airline. Only flights from the UK capital to Shanghai and Hong Kong will remain, and in the second of these cities the frequency will be halved. On the eve of the suspension of flights to China from mid-autumn, another British carrier, Virgin Atlantic, announced. Lufthansa and Air France-KLM reported on the collapse of their traffic to Asia and the loss of markets, they have to reduce the number of routes. Today, the German holding has only two out of 14 destinations in Asia: Singapore and Bangkok.
According to Cirium, the total number of seats on direct flights from Europe to Asia by the end of 2023 amounted to 22 million, which is 1 million less than back in 2010, and 26% behind the pre-2019 figure.
Demand for direct long-haul flights from Europe to Asia fell after in February 2022, in response to the closure of EU airspace for Russian airlines, our country banned European aircraft from flying over the territory of the Russian Federation. Due to the need to fly around Russia, routes have been extended by about a third, and air ticket prices have increased significantly. At the same time, carriers in China and the Middle East, which are not subject to restrictions of the Russian Federation, continue to carry passengers from Europe to Asia over our territory with connections in their countries and offer much more favorable tariffs. They are successfully pushing European competitors out of the market.
By the way, Aeroflot used to earn good money on the transit of passengers from Europe through Moscow to the Southeast Asian countries. This often even allowed the national carrier to offer favorable tariffs, for example, on routes to Thailand, to Russian customers, since foreigners provided partial loading of the aircraft. Currently, airlines from friendly countries have become the main beneficiaries of transit flights.
It is possible that difficulties with direct flights from Europe have become one of the reasons for the gradual loss of importance of European markets for such a popular tourist country as Thailand. Travelers from Europe are increasingly being replaced there by guests from China, India, and Russia. “The structure of tourist flows is actively changing, in the first six months of 2024, about 20 million foreign tourists arrived at Thai resorts, of which Europe accounts for barely 2 million,” said Viktor Kriventsov, head of the Thai host company Ilves Tour.
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