Asian Equities Analyst, Logistics & Transport, Tracking Traffic

Daniel Hellberg

Asian Equities Analyst, Logistics & Transport

Tracking Traffic

Focusing on Asian logistics, transportation, and travel companies

Equity Bottom-Up

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Data and anecdotes from a range of sources in December and January show the recovery in Chinese domestic travel demand has stalled. Looking forward, government estimates suggest travel activity over the Lunar New Year holiday in February will also remain muted. 
In the run up to the long holiday period, Chinese officials have responded aggressively to Covid19 outbreaks in several Chinese cities, most of them in Northern China. Until vaccines reach most of the population and prove effective against new variants of the virus, travel demand -- outbound and domestic -- will likely remain depressed. Even a Summer rebound now appears optimistic. 
A combination of hesitant consumers and necessarily aggressive government responses to new outbreaks leaves current travel demand far below normal (2019) levels. The stalled recovery in Chinese travel activity thus lags substantially the return of the Chinese consumer. With few signs of "pent-up" travel demand, it appears Chinese tourists may have altered spending priorities. 
The Chinese travel sector will enjoy easy YoY "comps" in early 2021 as we lap the worst of the Covid19 crisis in H120. However, in the medium-term, we see a "new normal" developing: non-essential travel has become riskier and less attractive, and thus a lower priority for consumers, and this will likely remain the case until Covid19 is put decisively in the rear-view mirror.




Data and anecdotes from a range of sources in December and January show the recovery in Chinese domestic travel demand has stalled. Looking forward, government estimates suggest travel activity over the Lunar New Year holiday in February will also remain muted. 
In the run up to the long holiday period, Chinese officials have responded aggressively to Covid19 outbreaks in several Chinese cities, most of them in Northern China. Until vaccines reach most of the population and prove effective against new variants of the virus, travel demand -- outbound and domestic -- will likely remain depressed. Even a Summer rebound now appears optimistic. 
A combination of hesitant consumers and necessarily aggressive government responses to new outbreaks leaves current travel demand far below normal (2019) levels. The stalled recovery in Chinese travel activity thus lags substantially the return of the Chinese consumer. With few signs of "pent-up" travel demand, it appears Chinese tourists may have altered spending priorities. 
The Chinese travel sector will enjoy easy YoY "comps" in early 2021 as we lap the worst of the Covid19 crisis in H120. However, in the medium-term, we see a "new normal" developing: non-essential travel has become riskier and less attractive, and thus a lower priority for consumers, and this will likely remain the case until Covid19 is put decisively in the rear-view mirror.  

December-January Travel Data Confirm Stalled Domestic Recovery; Weak LNY Unlikely to Help

<section class="figure"><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/179/973/original/BANNER-TourDec20.png?1608779882" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="179973"></figure></section>Outbound Chinese tourism activity remained dormant in November. Macau's recovery slowed, and the appearance of a new variant of the Covid19 virus suggests a potential recovery in Chinese outbound travel may be pushed back until at least the middle of 2021, maybe later. To our surprise, the recovery in domestic Chinese tourism also appears to have lost steam in November. Passenger counts at the three major national airlines fell YoY, and overall activity was well below that of October. Chinese consumers remain cautious towards discretionary travel. We believe Chinese travel demand will recover gradually in 2021, and that the recovery could gain momentum in the second half of the year. Still, the emergence of a new strain of the virus will likely cap outbound travel in the near-term, and it also appears the rebound in domestic demand is moderating. For now, we would avoid pricey travel-related stocks like <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/trip-com-group-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:180:1" rel="noopener">Trip.com (TCOM US)</a>.

Outbound Chinese tourism activity remained dormant in November. Macau's recovery slowed, and the appearance of a new variant of the Covid19 virus suggests a potential recovery in Chinese outbound travel may be pushed back until at least the middle of 2021, maybe later. To our surprise, the recovery in domestic Chinese tourism also appears to have lost steam in November. Passenger counts at the three major national airlines fell YoY, and overall activity was well below that of October. Chinese consumers remain cautious towards discretionary travel. We believe Chinese travel demand will recover gradually in 2021, and that the recovery could gain momentum in the second half of the year. Still, the emergence of a new strain of the virus will likely cap outbound travel in the near-term, and it also appears the rebound in domestic demand is moderating. For now, we would avoid pricey travel-related stocks like Trip.com (TCOM US).

TRACKING TRAFFIC/Chinese Tourism: Domestic Recovery Lost Steam in November

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On December 26th, Beijing’s municipal government responded to a fresh outbreak of Covid19 by ordering residents to stay at home during the upcoming Lunar New Year (LNY) holiday. LNY falls on February 12th next year, barely six weeks from now.  
The bad news out of Beijing highlights an important risk to Chinese travel-related companies: that yet another important holiday period could effectively be lost to Covid19. If the restrictions put in place by local authorities in Beijing extend to other large cities or provinces, it could push back a recovery in Chinese travel demand until Summer 2021 or even Golden Week, in October 2021.
In this note we explain why LNY travel matters, and why we now believe normal levels of LNY travel may again be lost in 2021. We also point to the example of Macau, which continues to see sub-par tourism demand five months after it eased travel restrictions for some Chinese visitors.




On December 26th, Beijing’s municipal government responded to a fresh outbreak of Covid19 by ordering residents to stay at home during the upcoming Lunar New Year (LNY) holiday. LNY falls on February 12th next year, barely six weeks from now.  
The bad news out of Beijing highlights an important risk to Chinese travel-related companies: that yet another important holiday period could effectively be lost to Covid19. If the restrictions put in place by local authorities in Beijing extend to other large cities or provinces, it could push back a recovery in Chinese travel demand until Summer 2021 or even Golden Week, in October 2021.
In this note we explain why LNY travel matters, and why we now believe normal levels of LNY travel may again be lost in 2021. We also point to the example of Macau, which continues to see sub-par tourism demand five months after it eased travel restrictions for some Chinese visitors.

Dreams Deferred: Looks Like Lunar New Year Travel Demand May Be Lost

Asian Insight Provider - Actionable ideas, CrossASEAN Research

Henry Soediarko

Asian Insight Provider - Actionable ideas

CrossASEAN Research

At CrossASEAN Research we strive to produce unbiased and differentiated on the ground insights on companies across South East Asia. Our Research is produced for the most part after face to face meetings and conversations with company management to dig deep into the long term vision and strategy of the companies we cover. We seek to deliver investable and actionable themes on sectors and markets across SE Asia, often in collaboration with other Insight Providers across the region, pooling the vast experience of the analysts within the Smartkarma Ecosystem. We also offer bespoke work and tailor made trips for our clients. 

Insights across South East Asia

Travelsky Technology Ltd H / Equity Bottom-Up

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/travelsky-technology-ltd-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:19829:1" rel="noopener">Travelsky Technology Ltd H (696 HK)</a> remains the de-facto SaaS play in the Chinese domestic airlines' industry that is proven by the higher ROE and lower debt level compared to the airlines in general. Volumes have recovered post the worse COVID-19 period thanks to the decisive government policy and as of October 2020, the YoY variance has narrowed to -1.3% compared to -46.7% in May 2020, further reinforcing the investment thesis that domestic travel that makes up to 85% of the group's business is recovering on the right direction. 
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Investors should treat <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/travelsky-technology-ltd-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:19829:1" rel="noopener">Travelsky Technology Ltd H (696 HK)</a> as an ETF to get exposure to the air travel recovery in China without the hassle of picking which airlines to buy.
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Travelsky Technology Ltd H (696 HK) remains the de-facto SaaS play in the Chinese domestic airlines' industry that is proven by the higher ROE and lower debt level compared to the airlines in general. Volumes have recovered post the worse COVID-19 period thanks to the decisive government policy and as of October 2020, the YoY variance has narrowed to -1.3% compared to -46.7% in May 2020, further reinforcing the investment thesis that domestic travel that makes up to 85% of the group's business is recovering on the right direction. 

Investors should treat Travelsky Technology Ltd H (696 HK) as an ETF to get exposure to the air travel recovery in China without the hassle of picking which airlines to buy.


Travelsky (696): Muted Impact from New Virus

HK/China Equity Long-Short

Osbert Tang, CFA

While <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-southern-airlines-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1078:1" rel="noopener">China Southern Airlines (1055 HK)</a> (CSA) is still showing the best traffic performance in absolute level, the Nov traffic showed that <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/air-china-ltd-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8239:1" rel="noopener">Air China Ltd (H) (753 HK)</a> has started to pick up its momentum. We believe the three important things to note are: 1.) Air China recording the least retreat in passenger traffic momentum MoM, 2.) Air China has the least drop in passenger load factor MoM, and 3.) Air China gathering cargo momentum.Since Nov, Air China has outperformed CSA by 10pp, and we see good possibility for this trend to continue into 2021, hence our <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/2021-high-conviction-pair-trade-long-air-china-753-hk-short-china-southern-1055-hk" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:45584" rel="noopener">2021 High Conviction: Pair Trade - Long Air China (753 HK), Short China Southern (1055 HK)</a>. Another positive note is that share price of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/cathay-pacific-airways-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:243:1" rel="noopener">Cathay Pacific Airways (293 HK)</a> has surged by 63.6% from the rights issue price of HK$4.68, and this has added some HK$2.2bn to Air China's value on the additional holdings in CX from the rights.

While China Southern Airlines (1055 HK) (CSA) is still showing the best traffic performance in absolute level, the Nov traffic showed that Air China Ltd (H) (753 HK) has started to pick up its momentum. We believe the three important things to note are: 1.) Air China recording the least retreat in passenger traffic momentum MoM, 2.) Air China has the least drop in passenger load factor MoM, and 3.) Air China gathering cargo momentum.Since Nov, Air China has outperformed CSA by 10pp, and we see good possibility for this trend to continue into 2021, hence our 2021 High Conviction: Pair Trade - Long Air China (753 HK), Short China Southern (1055 HK). Another positive note is that share price of Cathay Pacific Airways (293 HK) has surged by 63.6% from the rights issue price of HK$4.68, and this has added some HK$2.2bn to Air China's value on the additional holdings in CX from the rights.

Air China (753 HK): Quietly Catching up Against Peers, Well Set to Outperform in 2021

Hong Kong

Cathay Pacific Airways Limited operates scheduled airline services. The Company also provides related services, including airline catering, aircraft handling, and engineering.

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Cathay Pacific Airways (293 HK)

December-January Travel Data Confirm Stalled Domestic Recovery; Weak LNY Unlikely to Help

The recovery in domestic travel demand stalled again in December, and we believe improvement will be muted in the near-term as officials battle...

Tracking Traffic

TRACKING TRAFFIC/Chinese Tourism: Domestic Recovery Lost Steam in November

It appears the nascent recovery in Chinese domestic tourism activity began to stall in November. Outbound travel activity remains dormant, and even...

Tracking Traffic

Dreams Deferred: Looks Like Lunar New Year Travel Demand May Be Lost

We now believe there is a better than even chance that much of the Chinese travel demand normally associated with LNY will be lost in 2021.

Tracking Traffic

Travelsky (696): Muted Impact from New Virus

Travelsky Technology Ltd H (696 HK) is comparable to an ETF for investors who want to get exposure to the air travel recovery in China without...

Henry Soediarko

Air China (753 HK): Quietly Catching up Against Peers, Well Set to Outperform in 2021

Air China narrowed its gap against CSA on traffic and load performance in Nov, and this sets the stage for its outperformance in 2021. The surge in...

Osbert Tang, CFA

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