Seat occupancy lower - Xiamen Airlines

[Melburnian1]

On Sunday 6 February 2022, MF804 from MEL up to XMN had just four booked in J and 34 in whY, with passenger capacity in these two cabins respectively 30 and 260.

Percentage-wise, that a load factor of 13.1 per cent. Not as low as some others shown on BITRE during previous months, and it's probably in the offpeak direction as students may be starting to arrive in Oz, but even so, very unprofitable.

 

[Mattg]

but even so, very unprofitable.

How do you know that the flight didn't have a profitable cargo load?

In any case, not sure why you would expect more passengers than this when China and Australia's international borders are both still effectively closed and international transits through China are currently not possible.

 

[Melburnian1]

How do you know that the flight didn't have a profitable cargo load?

In any case, not sure why you would expect more passengers than this when China and Australia's international borders are both still effectively closed and international transits through China are currently not possible.

I'm well aware the borders are closed, thank you, but as a point in history, it's surely OK to highlight the low passenger numbers?

Yes, by all accounts, sea and air cargo rates have skyrocketed and it may well be that the cargo alone is profitable. But logically if it meant a profitable flight taking all expenses into account (corporate office allocation, plus the numerous staff required to operate a passenger flight), MF would be flying its passenger aircraft at least daily to MEL, but it's not doing that (yet).

Overall the financial position of the airline isn't good despite it being based in a major trade centre of mainland China:

(from ch-aviation.com):


Figures posted in the filing show that for the 11-months through November 2020, Xiamen Airlines has made a CNY572 million (USD87.33 million) net loss on revenue of CNY18.695 billion (USD2.854 billion). By comparison, for the year ended December 31, 2019, the carrier made a net profit of CNY785 million (USD119.9 million) on revenue of CNY32.612 billion (USD4.98 billion)