Fewer flights, smaller paychecks

According to knowledge from VariFlight, throughout Week 21 of 2026 (May 18–24):

1、China’s civil aviation sector operated almost 96,000 passenger flights, averaging 13,784 flights per day, down 7.8% year-on-year. The flight completion fee stood at 75.8%. Domestic passenger flights totaled 81,880, an 8.68% decline year-on-year.

2、International flight volumes reached 12,219, down 2.9% year-on-year.

3、Average fleet utilization throughout China’s civil aviation business was 7.0 hours per plane per day, together with 8.1 hours for widebody plane, 7.2 hours for narrowbody plane, and simply 3.9 hours for regional jets.

The pattern is changing into more and more clear:

1、Total flight operations have been declining week after week, with year-on-year progress now turning destructive. Domestic flights are seeing the steepest decline.

2、Flight completion charges have continued to weaken, displaying a transparent downward trajectory. The newest week’s completion fee was the bottom recorded throughout the present cycle.

3、Daily plane utilization has continued to fall throughout all fleet sorts. Regional jets have been hit the toughest, with utilization dropping beneath 4 hours per day over the previous week.

So what’s behind this pattern?

The chain response is comparatively easy:

Jet gas costs have doubled and stay elevated, pushing airline working prices sharply larger. At the identical time, gas surcharges have elevated considerably, making airfares costlier for passengers and suppressing journey demand.

Faced with rising prices and weakening demand, airways have little selection however to cancel low-efficiency flights in an effort to keep away from working companies that lose cash each time they take off.

As flight frequencies decline, aircrew inevitably log fewer flying hours. Fewer flight hours imply decrease flight-hour allowances, which interprets straight into decrease incomes for pilots and cabin crew.

At the identical time, losses have turn out to be unavoidable for a lot of airways. Since worker bonuses and performance-based compensation are carefully linked to firm profitability, weaker monetary outcomes are additionally resulting in decrease efficiency payouts and additional reductions in worker earnings.

In quick, airways are slicing flights, crews are flying fewer hours, and paychecks are shrinking. The business is more and more caught in a destructive cycle of rising prices, weakening demand, diminished capability, and declining worker earnings.