China has applied for nearly three years a very strict health policy against Covid-19 with almost mandatory PCR tests, lockdowns and travel restrictions.
The country also virtually closed its borders between 2020 and 2023, while Chinese could only travel abroad if there was a compelling reason.
Air links between China and abroad have been drastically reduced.
In this context, China Eastern Airlines tripled its losses last year to reach 37.4 billion yuan (4.9 billion euros), announced Thursday the second Chinese company in terms of passengers.
In the spring of 2022, a two-month lockdown in Shanghai had virtually shut down the two airports in the Chinese economic capital, where China Eastern has its headquarters.
The company had also experienced last March the worst air disaster in China since 1994, which dealt a blow to the image of the company.
One of its Boeing 737-800s had nosedived before disintegrating into a mountainside in southern China, killing all 132 people on board. The cause of this accident is still unknown.
For its part, Air China, China's flagship air transport company, announced losses twice as large as in 2021.
They amounted to 38.6 billion yuan (5.1 billion euros) over the whole of 2022 - against 16.6 billion yuan a year earlier.
For its part, China Southern Airlines, the first airline in Asia by the size of its fleet, reported Tuesday 32.6 billion yuan (4.3 billion euros) in losses.
A year earlier, they had reached 12.1 billion yuan.
After three years of restrictions, China finally resumed issuing tourist visas for foreigners in mid-March, while Chinese nationals have been able to leave their country again for tourism since January.
But the number of international connections remains low for the moment and the fares very high.
© 2023 AFP