Subhas Menon, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, speaks at Routes Asia 2025 in Perth, Australia.
PERTH, Australia—While international travel demand has fully recovered in the Asia-Pacific region, airlines are unable to take full advantage due to aircraft supply constraints, says the head of the region’s primary airline group.
Some commentators have focused on the fact that Asia-Pacific international capacity is still not back to pre-pandemic levels, says Subhas Menon, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, here at Routes Asia 2025. However, he says it is much more relevant to focus on traffic, which essentially recovered by November 2024.
Capacity has been constrained by aircraft availability issues related to delivery delays and engine maintenance backlogs, Menon notes. He cites IATA estimates of a 21% shortfall in aircraft deliveries this year.
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The industry is still facing major supply chain problems and “is still not seeing light at the end of the tunnel,” Menon says. All indications are that the issue will persist for some years yet.
This has been particularly severe on the Asia-Pacific airline industry, which had only just recovered from the COVID-19 crisis when the aircraft availability problems began ramping up.
Menon likens this to being at a restaurant and having food served, but not being given utensils to eat. Demand is strong, but airlines “are not getting the equipment they need to fulfill the demand,” Menon says. Carriers “have to be very careful” about which routes they launch, as well as boosting frequencies.
Despite this, Asia-Pacific airline earnings remain resilient, Menon says. Carriers in the region have become much more efficient, evidenced by load factors that are higher now than before the pandemic.
While fuel costs have eased, they are still higher than before the pandemic. Costs in most other areas are increasing, which is putting pressure on yields.
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