Airlines Predict Post-Pandemic Travel Boom Between China And Japan

This week, two owners of a joint-venture airline expressed their optimism for a post-pandemic tourism boom between Japan and China. The airline in question is Spring Airlines Japan, which is a collaboration between Chinese carrier Spring Airlines, and major Japanese carrier Japan Airlines.

Spring Airlines Japan operates a small fleet of just six Boeing 737-800s. Photo: Hawkeye UK via Wikimedia Commons 

Service to more Chinese coastal cities by 2024

Despite Japan’s current COVID-19 situation, executives behind Spring Airlines Japan are hopeful that tourism will flourish once conditions are eased. Japan is currently in the midst of a fifth spike in cases, over twice as bad as the last wave, which took place from mid-April to June.

According to Singapore’s The Business Times, Spring Japan’s new CEO and former Japan Airlines executive, Akira Yonezawa, said in an interview that his airline is looking at new routes to large Chinese coastal cities with populations exceeding 10 million. This expansion would take place sometime before March 2024.

Prior to the crisis, the airline had operated just seven routes from its Tokyo Narita Hub to cities such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, and more.

A few of the sample China-Japan routes that Spring Airlines Japan has operated in the past. Photo: GCMap.com

“Japan is close to China, so it’s easy to travel and there’s a lot of expectation [for traffic between the two countries].” -Akira Yonezawa, CEO, Spring Airlines Japan via Business Times

Pent-up travel demand expected

The CEO of Spring Airlines Japan has good reason to be optimistic about post-pandemic travel across the Sea of Japan. Business Times notes that around 90% of Spring Airlines Japan’s international passengers are Chinese nationals. Indeed, 18% of Chinese residents surveyed by the Pacific Asia Travel Association wanted to visit Japan.

The key phrase within all of this optimism is “post-pandemic.” Unfortunately, this could be some time away considering Japan’s current situation. The country hit a peak high of over 20,000 new cases on August 14th. Unfortunately, vaccination rates have been sluggish compared to other countries, although this is expected to change now that the Olympics are over.

Pent-up travel demand has certainly been proven in other markets as border restrictions have eased. Indeed, some airlines have had to lay on additional frequencies or even increase the size of aircraft in order to handle bookings.

In May 2021, it was announced that Japan Airlines would be making Spring Airlines Japan one of its subsidiaries. The airline previously had a 5% stake in Spring Japan. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

About Spring Airlines Japan

Spring Airlines Japan was first established through the efforts of the Chinese carrier Spring Airlines. This Chinese budget carrier announced in 2011 a plan to establish a subsidiary in Japan, making it the first Chinese airline to do so. The airline was then officially established in 2012 and launched operations in August of 2014.

Spring Airlines Japan currently has a fleet of just six aircraft. All of these jets are Boeing 737-800s with an average fleet age of just over six years. All of the budget carrier’s 737s are configured to be a single-class economy layout with 189 seats. 

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