China Eastern Airlines successfully launched its maiden flight from Shanghai to Marseille, accelerating and improving the deployment of international routes
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Civil Aviation Resources Network, July 2, 2024: A major theme of China's civil aviation development in 2024 is the continued recovery of international flights. At the 2024 National Civil Aviation Work Conference held in Beijing on January 4, the authorities proposed the prediction and goal of "the international passenger market will accelerate recovery, and it is expected to reach about 6,000 flights per week by the end of 2024, recovering to about 80% before the epidemic" in response to the uneven recovery and development of China's international passenger market, which is obviously lagging behind the domestic market.
In response to this, the IATA monthly monitoring data reflects that in the first quarter of 2024, the total RPK and ASK of global civil aviation passenger transport actually almost simultaneously recovered to the level of January 2020, indicating that the total scale of global civil aviation passenger transport has officially emerged from the impact of the epidemic. However, under the overall picture of the full recovery of the total volume, the recovery of various regional markets, as well as the further domestic and international civil aviation markets, is mixed, with different joys and sorrows. Different from the relatively strong recovery of relevant markets in Europe and the United States, the Asia-Pacific region where China is located is the most challenging of the three most important regional civil aviation markets in the world; and among them, the challenges in the international passenger market connected to China are particularly obvious.
Strictly speaking, the recovery of global passenger capacity and volume is certainly an important milestone, but the "recovery" at this moment is not the recovery under the previous global civil aviation structure; it is a brand-new international air network structure that is very different from the form a few years ago, and it just happens that the total volume has achieved a response to the pre-epidemic benchmark value after a full four years. Behind the same total volume figures, the map of global geopolitical relations reflected by the international route structure is no longer the same as before.
The three state-owned airlines, which have an important mission to promote the country's high-level opening up to the outside world and reshape China's international air network structure, are essentially facing the task of closely following the recovery process of the original backbone market to quickly fill the position on the big stage of new international relations, and also placing considerable energy to connect with various emerging civil aviation opportunities, and timely identify, develop, cultivate and expand the new air network market.
For the civil aviation industry, these emerging opportunities may come from friendly bilateral diplomatic relations, mutually beneficial economic and trade cooperation opportunities, inherited overseas Chinese bloodlines, unique bilateral tourism themes, major cultural and sports events at specific times, etc. The more relevant themes there are, and the stronger the economic foundation at both ends of the route, the better the prospects for route growth will be. This is also the basic logic for China to expand its new international air network.
The successful maiden flight of China Eastern Airlines Group's direct Shanghai-Marseille flight is, at the current point in time, a very rare and unique event in China's civil aviation industry in the launch of a new route that combines multiple themes. The value it brings is very diverse, and it is also a vivid practice of the above-mentioned new route screening logic, which makes the entire industry look forward to its subsequent development.
Specifically, the opening of China Eastern Airlines' new Shanghai-Marseille route fully responds to the following topics:
1) This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. In the current complex and severe international situation, looking back on the cooperation and exploration between the two countries over the past 60 years is to explore new cooperation models and themes in the new era and new situation. Against this background, the direct flight from Shanghai to Marseille takes advantage of the friendship between China and France and continues to strengthen the ties between the two sides.
2) The friendly exchanges between Shanghai and Marseille have a long history. The two sides formally established sister friendly city relations 37 years ago in 1987. In October 1992, Shanghai Port and Marseille Port officially became friendly ports. In June 2004, under the framework of the Chinese Cultural Year, Shanghai held a series of Shanghai Week activities in Marseille and presented Shanghai Garden to Marseille. In May 2005, under the framework of the French Cultural Year, the Marseille Municipal Government held Marseille Week activities in Shanghai and built the Fountain of Hope in Xujiahui Park, Shanghai. In 2017, Shanghai and Marseille signed a new round of memorandum of friendship and cooperation on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of their friendship to further promote the friendly cooperation between the two cities. The opening of the direct flight route from Shanghai to Marseille fills the gap in direct flight services between the two cities. It will also greatly facilitate the exchanges of people between the two cities on the basis of the friendly city relationship between the two sides, and promote this city friendship to a new level.
3) Marseille is the second largest city in France and an important industrial center in southern France, concentrating 40% of France's oil processing industry. Its ship repair industry is also very developed, and its ship repair volume accounts for 70% of the country's industry. The Port of Marseille is the largest port in France and the largest port in the Mediterranean region. It has a large amount of cargo throughput every year and plays a vital role in France's foreign trade. The connection between Marseille and Shanghai, the leading city of China's trade and shipping, shortens the time distance between the two cities, which will surely bring positive effects to linking the two trade ports and the wider economic hinterland covered by each.
4) As the capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, Marseille is rich in local and surrounding tourism resources, providing a new destination, entrance and route for residents of Shanghai, the Yangtze River Delta and even the wider mainland China to travel to Europe, creating better transportation conditions for promoting Chinese outbound tourism and attracting residents of southern France and southern Europe to travel to Shanghai, East China and the wider inland areas.
5) As the Chinese summer vacation has just begun, the golden months of group tours and family tours mainly for students have officially arrived, which is the best time for this route to build word-of-mouth and establish traffic.
6) In particular, the 33rd Summer Olympics, which will open in Paris on July 26, will be the return of the Olympics to Paris 100 years after the 1924 Paris Olympics, which is of special significance. The Velodrome Stadium and the Port of Marseille will host the football and sailing competitions in the Olympic Games respectively. The opening of this direct route will bring convenience for Chinese residents to watch the featured Olympic events in person from Shanghai.
7) From the perspective of the continuous construction of the China-Europe air network, this route fills the gap of direct flights between China and southern France, especially from Shanghai Pudong. With its status as an aviation hub in the Yangtze River Delta, it is equivalent to the efficient connection between East China and southern France, and it is a key step in the deepening development of China-France and China-Europe civil aviation.
8) Visa facilitation policy promotes personnel exchanges. In May this year, China announced that the visa-free policy for citizens of 12 countries including France to visit China for a short period of time will be extended to the end of 2025, and eligible French passengers can enjoy visa-free convenience when visiting China. At the same time, the French government announced that it will implement visa facilitation measures for Chinese tour groups and business travelers before 2025. Data shows that the visa facilitation policy has a significant driving effect on the recovery of the international travel market between China and relevant countries, and the popularity of China-France and other routes in Europe is the highest.
The combination of these positive factors is indeed the strongest blessing for the opening of China's international civil aviation routes in recent years, and the symbolic significance is significant.
Since 2023, China Eastern Airlines has steadily promoted the restoration and addition of international flights. This summer, China Eastern Airlines will operate international and regional routes to 34 countries and regions (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan), 75 destinations, 179 routes, and 2,856 flights per week, with an overall recovery to 102% of 2019. Among them, Europe has recovered to 144%, Oceania has recovered to 129%, North America has recovered to 18%, Japan has recovered to 82%, South Korea has recovered to 117%, Southeast Asia and South Asia have recovered to 118%, the Middle East has recovered to 190%, and Africa has added 6 flights per week to Cairo compared to 2019. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have recovered to 97%. China Eastern Airlines is already the carrier with the largest number of flights between China and France, China and Russia, China and Hungary, and China to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and it is also the carrier with the most flight points from China to Japan and South Korea. At the same time, China Eastern Airlines' international flights originating from Shanghai have an overall recovery rate of 109.4% compared with the same period in 2019.
Of course, before the epidemic, the network structure presented by global civil aviation was gradually formed with the continuous advancement of the golden age of global integration in the past few decades, and it was not achieved overnight. At a time when global geopolitical relations are undergoing dramatic changes, the launch of any emerging routes and, more importantly, their subsequent steady development and continued growth also require the cities and countries at both ends of the routes to gradually take shape after a period of investment and rolling development under the protection of stable and friendly diplomatic relations. This relies on the opening of routes to bring breakthrough convenience to economic, trade, cultural and tourism exchanges, and further activate and promote more bilateral economic and trade interactions, thereby further feeding back to the development of routes and entering a positive cycle. We must give full play to the potential energy of various favorable factors, do a good job in the publicity and marketing of routes, and deeply interact with cities at both ends and the extensive hinterland, so as to truly gradually increase the weight of emerging routes in the global map and reshape the new international air network map.
The new era of building an international air network is setting sail. China's civil aviation must keep up with changes in market demand and resume relevant international routes in a timely manner, seize emerging opportunities, and explore new practices in the development and operation of international routes, so as to continuously promote a faster and more stable recovery of China's civil aviation international market and help the country's high-level opening up to the outside world.