Was in Guangzhou yesterday and flew through Southern China. The airport is a ghost town. The government funded routes are just a drop in the bucket to keep a few planes subsidised and in the air at $10 a flight. The airspace is almost vacant in South China. No flow control, start 45 minutes early and cleared for immediate takeoff whenever you want. Planes stacked up everywhere on every conceivable nook and cranny. This is far from normal. This is a long term hole to dig out from. The people are still wearing masks, rarely go to restaurants for eat in and malls and shops are like ghost towns. Far from normal. The prevailing attitude is cautiously optimism but it’s a long haul to get back to normal. All the factories started up for a week or two then realised all their orders had cancelled and a sluggish cancellation of orders and no future sales so many have closed down again.
QUOTE=CW247;10731636]There is some positivity in the Chinese domestic market. Many small/thin routes are paid for by the government and continued flying over the last month anyway, but now a little more demand is kicking in for the usual busy routes.
BUT. China has now banned any foreign nationals (even those with a resident permit) from coming in. Even employees of Chinese companies. Only duty crew and diplomats allowed.
A few Chinese companies retained their foreigners without unpaid leave, and some of them are at home in their OFF weeks period. Tianjin and a few more airlines have done a recall for their foreign pilots starting next month. But with the restriction on travel to China, neither group of pilots will be coming back to China soon! This may create a temporary shortage of pilots now.[/QUOTE]