AirNav RadarBox Reports Beijing Flight Decrease By 50% Between August 6-13

The Image Above: Aerial view of Beijing Capital International Airport. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

AirNav RadarBox has seen a sharp decline in the number of flights operating out of Beijing Airport (ZBAA) in the last week. 

The Numbers

The Image Above: Airport movement statistics at Beijing Capital International Airport. 

Between August 6-13, the airport recorded just 457 movements, compared to 917 in the same period last year, representing a 50.16% decrease.

There was some hope at the end of July where the airport recorded 919 movements between July 23-30, which was up 13.88% compared to the same period last year. 

However, between July 30-August 6, movements decreased by 29.78% to 639, which began the path of decline in the Summer month. 

June and July Performed Better

June was a far busier month for the airport, averaging between 800-900 movements across a four-week period before the decline occurred.

July was more or less the same in terms of positive performance too, with the following numbers seen below:

What we can see from the data is that June was the stronger month out of the two, and you could see that the decline was beginning to occur well into July before the negative digits actually started in August. 

What is the reason for the numbers dropping in August?

The reason why numbers in August have dropped for Beijing is to do with the new lockdown measures reinstated by the Chinese government on August 2 due to the Delta variant spreading to more than 20 cities. 

According to a report from the Guardian in the UK, "the capital city has cut all rail, bus and air links with areas where coronavirus cases have been found and closed its doors to tourists during the peak summer holiday travel season". 

So this, of course, comes as no surprise that aircraft movements are lower, as tourists can't get into the area, thus meaning less of a need for such flights to take place. 

It will be interesting to see how long this lockdown will go on for, and whether this could be the end of Summer travel for Beijing, at least in 2021.