Ep 203: Assessing South East Asia's Air Travel Recovery 4 Years After the Declaration of a Pandemic, with Brendan Sobie

Today marks 4 years since the WHO declared Covid-19 a global pandemic on 11 March 2020. We know what happened next, especially in Asia Pacific where the impacts on travel lasted longer than elsewhere. So where is South East Asia’s air travel recovery currently at – and what is the outlook for the rest of the year, and beyond?

To discuss these big questions, Gary chats with Brendan Sobie, Founder of Sobie Aviation and one of the region’s most prolific aviation analysts. The discussion covers the entire aviation, airline and airport landscape. Which markets have achieved a full domestic recovery and which haven’t - and will they ever do so? Is the ‘post-pandemic honeymoon’ period for large airline profits ending? And how are legacy carriers and LCCs positioned for the next phase of realignment? We look at the 5 busiest international airports in Asia Pacific, and the traffic shifts as competition re-intensifies.

And, we address the evolution of air fares, which are moderating but “still significantly higher overall than they were”. Plus we discuss higher costs for airlines, and how this makes managing yields more challenging. And we analyse the growth outlook for the region’s mega-markets, China and India, influential markets, such as the Middle East, Central Asia, Japan, South Korea and Australia and intra-ASEAN trends.