Corona pandemic in Asia: closed borders burden Airbus

Many Asian countries are relying on closed borders in the fight against the corona pandemic. That means fewer flights – and therefore fewer orders for aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

Until the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic, the Asia-Pacific region was the ultimate growth market for international aviation. The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, among others, benefited from this. But now the DAX group is warning: The de facto still closed borders of many Asian countries have ensured that the previously booming airlines in the region need far fewer new Airbus machines than previously thought. That is worrying, said the German head of sales at Airbus, Christian Scherer, of the Hong Kong daily newspaper “South China Morning Post”.

Delays until the 1930s

The Malaysian low-cost airline Air Asia, for example, has ordered more than 350 A321 aircraft from Airbus. Because of the largely closed borders in the region, Air Asia has now asked Airbus to delay delivery of the new aircraft until the mid-2030s. In order not to lose the multi-billion dollar contract altogether, Airbus agreed to the compromise.

Numerous countries in the Asia-Pacific region are trying to keep their Covid-19 numbers low by making entry from abroad extremely difficult or banning them altogether; for example China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam. Accordingly, air traffic within Asia is still not recovering.

Openings in sight

In the “South China Morning Post”, Scherer criticized the zero-covid strategy of many governments in Asia. Opening the borders for people vaccinated against corona has so far not shown any dramatic effects on people’s health and helps with the economic upturn.

Some states in the region such as Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand have announced that they will relax their entry rules.