Although the recovery is slow and patchy across Asia-Pacific and China, mostly because of continuing border and travel restrictions, those airlines with large domestic markets are seeing travel demand return at a pace. China, Vietnam and South Korea are benefiting from their domestic markets and are opening up more city pair routes to increase connectivity. As other states reopen, however, more markets will once again face competition. A solution seems to lie in large regional jets, especially new-generation, fuel-efficient aircraft that provide more flexibility and potential to maintain high load factors even on thin routes. Airlines in Australia, China and Japan were early operators of the Embraer E175 and E190 E-Jets, while Korean Air (KAL) is the only Airbus A220-300 operator and now has 10 in its fleet. During the pandemic, Myanmar National Airlines took delivery of its first E190, a deal made in 2016, and Vietnam startup Bamboo Airways leased E190s so that it could compete against national carrier Vietnam Airlines on domestic routes. KAL also deployed the A220s on some international routes that have been traditionally served by larger narrowbodies.
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