AAPA’s Wong Hong Discusses Supply Chain, Sustainability

Wong Hong became director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) in April. He brings extensive international aviation experience, having held senior roles at Delta Air Lines, including as president for China, as well as at Singapore Airlines and IATA. He joined ATW’s Window Seat podcast in August to talk about issues facing airlines in Asia-Pacific. This article is based on extracts from that podcast.

Given your extensive career across the air transport industry, what are your initial thoughts after taking the helm at AAPA? I’m really excited. I spent a considerable amount of time in my previous job [at Delta] based in Shanghai. And in those last 10 years, I was focusing a lot more on the airline business between China and US. So having been away from the Southeast Asia region and being Singaporean, I’m very excited to be back in this region. There was a remarkable trend of growth momentum right after COVID, since 2023, until, of course, earlier this year. But certainly, this role gives me an opportunity to really witness the growth in this region and support our member airlines in Asia-Pacific who are actively trying to cater for and serve all the customers in Asia and then to connect them all around the world.

How does the Asia-Pacific air transport market differ from other regions? Asia-Pacific is a very large geography, and it’s not one contiguous block.  Geographically speaking, it lends itself to a lot more opportunities that require people to travel by air. And the other uniqueness in Asia-Pacific is that it’s made up of a whole range of countries spanning from the Southwest Pacific and into Southeast Asia, up north into North Asia, and then moving westward into the Indian subcontinent. So, it’s a very diverse geography to begin with, and diverse cultures as well, and that’s what makes it really unique at the outset. The other thing I would say that really differs is if you have been looking at the trends for travel over the last 10, 15 years, you can see a very nice momentum being built in Asia-Pacific travel, and the demand for travel will just continue.

And simply because the demographics point to that scale of potential, meaning to say the middle-class population in Asia-Pacific is the biggest potential market that lots of companies, not just the airlines, are keenly interested in trying to tap. We’re talking about nearly 50% of the world’s middle-class residing in Asia-Pacific. And that brings about a lot of opportunities for my member airlines to try and serve them.

What are you hearing from your member airlines about the Asia-Pacific market, particularly on the financial and operational sides? As we transitioned into 2026 and the Middle East conflict that arose, things spun in a complete 180-degree turn simply because the fuel prices shot up and took everyone by surprise. Many airlines were really refocusing their business on trying to keep things going. First of all, they’ve got booking commitments from customers who are already committed to travel, that were paid a few months back, and that have been already locked in.

So as far as revenues were concerned, that didn’t change very much, but the costs were spiraling out of control. And that translates to a lot of anxiety and concern. At one point, there was a concern for fuel availability in the region in certain markets. So many airlines had to scramble and understandably focus on network operations, having to decide how would they rationalize capacity in light of the surging fuel costs that would translate into operating losses for many of the routes.

Do people across the Asia region still want to travel? Indeed. In fact, that has been the saving grace. Many of my airlines have been telling me that despite some price increases because of either fuel surcharges or airfares having to be adjusted upwards, the drop-off in demand hasn’t been as bad, which means to say there’s still some desire for travel from a whole range of customers and willingness to pay. Everybody understands the fuel crisis, the Strait of Hormuz being in the news and all across the world. But I think the main question will come because in the coming months, when people stabilize and get to a sense of normalcy or a new norm, would that be something that people will still be comfortable paying in terms of heightened airfares and increased prices? And of course, the other potential headwind that many of the airlines are looking out for is whether or not inflation will start to kick in.

What about the cargo side? That’s a very important part of the Asia-Pacific. Actually, cargo’s results have been more impressive, and they’re holding out really well. Some of the figures that we’re seeing are still showing good growth momentum. And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the manufacturing and semiconductor industries have led the way despite tariffs that are still ongoing imposed mostly from the US. And I think the supply chain for production and manufacturing for factories, they’ve found a solution, I would like to say. I think this year you will start to see different patterns, different routes being established, but Asia is still the manufacturing center of the world. And China, of course, plays a big, big part of that. And despite some of the heightened tariffs, they’ve found solutions and ways to overcome them.

Do you get any sense that the supply chain is getting better? Based on the feedback that we are receiving, I would say broadly speaking, the airlines have come to a certain level of expectation and they’re trying to manage as best as they can. The underlying delays haven’t really changed. A delay is a delay, and the delays can be still fairly significant. Aircraft that are meant to be delivered are coming two years further down the road.

So maybe there’s a little bit of a breather, if you like. But by and large, I would say the underlying shortage is still prevailing.

What about sustainability as a priority for airlines? Sustainability is a topic that is not urgent, but it’s very important. Not something that we have to solve today, but something we really have to solve eventually.

Within Asia-Pacific, AAPA has set a goal for 5% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) utilization by 2030. And that’s an aspirational goal to send the right messaging to all players. But it’s difficult to achieve a goal when the supply is so scarce.

SAF is still two to four times more expensive [than jet fuel]. So how can you expect the airlines to absorb all of that? Governments can take a much more active role.

There’s going to be a very special AAPA annual assembly this year. Talk a little bit about that. This year we will be celebrating our 60^th year. So, we’re really excited to have everybody come together to reflect on how much we have done, and how much was achieved. There’s also a lot of resilience that you see as a result of overcoming crisis after crisis, and we certainly hope there will be less of it, but we can be quite sure there will be still some more obstacles along the way.

Listen to the full interview with Wong Hong on ATW’s Window Seat podcast at https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/window-seat-podcast/podcast-conversat…