Beijing Bounces Back to Growth

It’s hard to believe that Beijing’s newest airport has been open for a year already. And what a year it has been for the industry – certainly not one that any airport would have wished for in it’s inaugural year.

We know however that China’s domestic air market has recovered from the COVID crisis, at least in terms of capacity – and in the month of November, domestic capacity was 10% above November 2019 levels.

Looking back over the last year at capacity for both Beijing Capital (PEK) and Beijing Daxing (PKX) shows both airports on a similar recovery track. From opening in September 2019, capacity grew quickly at PKX in the last quarter of 2019, to 12% of Beijing capacity.

At both airports, capacity fell away in the first quarter of 2020, following the COVID outbreak, but has been on a steady recovery since, albeit with a small setback in July 2020 when a localised outbreak shut down Beijing temporarily. Since August however, capacity has really ramped up at PKX, with the airport now handling 43% of Beijing’s capacity.