How Persian Gulf turmoil is reshaping Europe-Asia aviation landscape
Chinese carriers gain advantage as Gulf carriers take heavy hit from airspace closures; actress Dilraba Dilmurat among those stranded
This week, economy class on most direct one-way Beijing-Paris flights is fully booked, with a small number of economy seats – plus premium economy and business class seats – remaining.
Economy seats on an Air China flight on Sunday are already booked out, with a one-way Beijing-Paris business-class ticket priced at around 77,000 yuan ($11,127), according to Trip.com Group, China’s largest online travel agency.
A one-way economy ticket on an Air France flight now costs 26,000 yuan, more than triple the usual price of 5,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan, data from the platform showed. But there are none left for Sunday and only business-class seats costing 51,000 yuan one way are available for Monday.
“The Middle East accounts for a relatively small share of China’s international air route network,” said Guo Jia, a senior independent civil aviation industry analyst based in Guangzhou. “Major China-Europe flights typically fly via Central Asia and Turkey, rather than Middle Eastern airspace. Therefore, the direct impact of the conflict on Chinese carriers’ international routes is limited.”
He said Chinese carriers could see an uptick in demand on their established routes to Europe, Canada and Australia as a result of the disruption in the Gulf.
On China-Europe direct routes, Chinese carriers accounted for 77 per cent of total capacity last year, up from 55 per cent in 2019, according to the IBA Group, an aviation intelligence company.
Traditional European airlines have drastically scaled back direct flights to Asia in recent years. Barred by Moscow from using Russian airspace, they face longer flight times and higher costs, giving Chinese carriers an edge in pricing and capacity utilisation on direct routes.