Xinda Securities·2025-08-17 13:36Investment Rating - The investment rating for the airline transportation industry is "Positive" [2][6]. Core Insights - The industry has maintained a high passenger load factor, but ticket prices have shown weakness, particularly in July, attributed to limited travel demand and intense competition among airlines. The implementation of the "anti-involution" measures and the self-discipline agreement by the China Air Transport Association is expected to mitigate malicious competition and stabilize pricing [3][12]. - The average ticket price in the domestic market has decreased by 9.1% year-on-year as of mid-August 2025, with July's average ticket price down 8.8% year-on-year. However, the rate of decline in ticket prices has recently narrowed [4][25]. - The airline industry is experiencing a slowdown in capacity growth, with domestic airlines maintaining low growth rates in capacity deployment. The passenger load factor remains high, with significant year-on-year increases noted for major airlines [6][43]. Summary by Sections 1. Supply and Demand - The industry passenger load factor reached 84.6% in June 2025, up 1.3 percentage points year-on-year. The available seat kilometers (ASK) and revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) increased by 5.5% and 7.1% year-on-year, respectively [14][18]. - Domestic routes saw a 3.8% increase in turnover volume year-on-year, while international routes have nearly recovered to 97.7% of 2019 levels [23][24]. 2. Ticket Pricing - The average domestic ticket price was 867 CNY, down 9.1% year-on-year as of August 15, 2025. The average ticket price in July fell by 8.8% year-on-year, with a slight narrowing of the decline observed in early August [4][25]. - Recent weekly average ticket prices showed declines of -7.9%, -10.8%, -9.8%, and -8.4% in the four weeks leading up to mid-August [25][26]. 3. Fuel and Exchange Rates - The average price of aviation fuel decreased by 12.9% year-on-year in August 2025. The average ex-factory price of aviation kerosene was 5616 CNY per ton, with a significant decline noted in the first two quarters of 2025 [36][39]. - The exchange rate of the US dollar to the Chinese yuan remained stable, with a slight decrease of 0.71% from the end of 2024 to mid-August 2025 [36][42]. 4. Airline Operations - In the first seven months of 2025, domestic airlines showed varied capacity growth, with some airlines like Spring Airlines increasing capacity by 4.0%, while others like China United Airlines saw a decline [6][43]. - The passenger load factor for major airlines in July 2025 was as follows: China Southern Airlines at 84.38%, China Eastern Airlines at 84.76%, and Spring Airlines at 91.86% [46].