China’s three largest airlines have just announced their 2025 first quarter (Q1) results, so this week’s Flight Friday looks at how Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines are performing by comparing domestic versus international flights.
Air China in 2019, on average, was operating 26,000 monthly domestic flights. Air China’s domestic utilization has grown the most and in Q1 2025 is now up over 50% compared to the 2019 average. However, this growth in domestic traffic has come, in part, at the expense of its international movements. Back in 2019, Air China were averaging over 7,000 monthly international flights, but that number has dropped by almost 7% to under 7,000.
China Eastern Airlines has also seen growth in its domestic utilization, increasing from an average of 38,500 monthly flights in 2019 to over 54,000 average domestic flights in 2020, equating to a 40% increase. Aside from the domestic growth, China Eastern has also increased its international flights, by growing 3.5% from 2019 to Q1 2025 to become the carrier with the highest number of international flights, with over 9,100 average monthly flights within this analysis.
China Southern Airlines remains the carrier with the highest number of domestic flights, having grown by almost 30% from 2019—up from 42,500 in 2019 to almost 55,000 in 2025. Like Air China, China Southern has also seen a drop in international movements, falling almost 15% from 9,300 on average in 2019 to a little over 8,000 monthly in Q1 2025.
This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization database.
Related Content
