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International airlines pivot away from Asia amid frustration with slow reopenings and zero-Covid approach of Hong Kong, mainland China
- Air travel in much of the world is taking off once more, but divisions in Asia over how to approach the pandemic have grounded ambitions in this part of the world
- Some airlines, United and Lufthansa among them, are responding by redeploying planes from Asian to transatlantic routes. Hopefully, they say, it’s a short-term measure. But few see much change before 2023
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Across much of the world, a recovery in air travel is finally under way. International airlines are readying their crews and planes and preparing to take advantage of an expected boom in demand as countries learn to live with Covid-19.
Except for large swathes of Asia, a region that is divided in its approach to the pandemic and has dragged its feet in the reopening of borders.
Many airlines are growing increasingly frustrated about mixed signals on the region’s reopening plans and, as a result, some big name carriers have decided to switch their focus – at least temporarily – to other areas of the world.
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The response of two leading airlines to the uncertainty surrounding air travel in Asia is telling.
United Airlines, America’s largest international carrier, is to redeploy 50 to 60 long-haul planes that would normally ply Asian routes to the highly-profitable transatlantic route between the US and Europe, which is to reopen to travellers in November.
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Meanwhile, the largest European airline that flies into Asia, Deutsche Lufthansa, says that by December it will be operating more flights between New York and Chicago than throughout Asia as it waits for the region to open.
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