Air China (00753) announced that in March, the company and its subsidiaries collectively recorded an increase in both passenger capacity, measured in available seat kilometers, and passenger traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometers, compared to the same period last year. Passenger capacity rose by 10.7% year-on-year, while passenger traffic increased by 19.9%. Specifically, domestic passenger capacity grew by 11.7%, with passenger traffic up 16.9%. International passenger capacity expanded by 8.5%, accompanied by a 27.6% rise in passenger traffic. Regional passenger capacity climbed by 10.7%, and passenger traffic increased by 19.8%. The average passenger load factor reached 86.3%, representing an increase of 6.6 percentage points compared to the previous year. The load factor for domestic routes rose by 3.8 percentage points, international routes by 13.3 percentage points, and regional routes by 5.9 percentage points.

In the cargo sector, freight capacity, measured in available cargo tonne kilometers, increased by 4.1% year-on-year. However, cargo and mail traffic, measured in revenue cargo tonne kilometers, decreased by 2.9%. The cargo load factor stood at 35.4%, down by 2.6 percentage points from the previous year.

Regarding new routes, the airline launched a Beijing Capital-Brussels service (seven flights weekly) starting March 24. From March 26, a Chengdu Tianfu-Brussels route (three flights weekly) was introduced. Commencing March 29, new routes included Beijing Capital-Yulin (seven flights weekly), Beijing Capital-Jiaxing (seven flights weekly), Wenzhou-Zhanjiang (three flights weekly), and Hohhot-Yichang (seven flights weekly). A Beijing Capital-Pyongyang route (one flight weekly) resumed operations from March 30. Starting March 31, a new Shanghai Pudong-Lijiang service (three flights weekly) was launched.

In March, the group added one C919 aircraft to its fleet and retired one B737 series aircraft. As of the end of March, the group operated a total of 960 aircraft, comprising 423 owned aircraft, 252 under finance lease, and 285 under operating lease.