China expects record air travel demand in Lunar New Year holiday

Chinese travelers are expected to make a record number of plane trips during the upcoming festival period that includes the Lunar New Year holiday.

About 80 million passenger trips will be made between Jan. 26 and March 5, Liang Nan, a senior official at the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at a briefing on Monday. That’s about 2 million trips a day and up 9.8% from 2019’s level, she said.

The Lunar New Year holiday — a week-long break that kicks off Feb. 10 — is the most important in China and typically sees millions of workers head home to spend time with their families. Pre-Covid it was the world’s biggest mass migration event, and strong demand for domestic travel this year will offer a further boost to the already-booming sector. 

Domestic destinations such as Sanya on the resort island of Hainan, along with Xinjiang, will see significantly more travel demand during the holiday. Overseas hotspots like Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia are also set to be popular, according to Liang. 

The CAAC called on airlines to monitor the market closely and add flights in order to meet the expected strong demand. 

Separately, the regulator outlined 28 major safety tasks it will undertake, including promoting technological innovation. The CAAC didn’t reference the recent Alaska Airlines incident, which saw one of its planes suffer a blowout, at the briefing.