Photo: Courtesy of China Southern Airlines

 Domestic airlines are making preparations for the summer holiday market amid a gradual recovery of the flying and tour markets. 

China Eastern Airlines said its transport capacity for domestic routes is now more than 70 percent being restored, and it expects to return to near full capacity in the second half of the year. 

China Eastern said it will increase its number of round-trip flights from Shanghai to Yinchuan, Xining, Shantou, Qingdao and other tourism cities in July. At the same time, it will increase the use of wide-body aircraft on its flying routes between Shanghai and Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chongqing, and between Kunming and Urumqi.

China Southern said it will focus on hot spots such as the Greater Bay Area, redirect the reduced capacity of international routes to the domestic market, and increase flying capacities in Chengdu, Xi'an, Kunming, Hangzhou and other places through the use of wide-body aircraft. 

It expects that in the third quarter passenger traffic will return to 76 percent of the level seen in the same period last year, and that that figure will see fast month-on-month increases.

Private-run Spring Airlines said that from July 1 this year it has begun opening more domestic routes, and each week it will open multiple new destinations. Since May 3, 47 domestic routes have been opened. 28 new routes have been opened nationwide since the beginning of July, and efforts have been made to expand the layout of domestic routes and prepare for cross-provincial tourism recovery.

From July, the search volume for summer travel air tickets has increased significantly. 

According to data from Qunar.com, the search volume for summer air tickets in July increased fourfold compared to mid to late June. The search volume for air tickets in Beijing increased nine times compared to mid to late June. Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou are the top three most searched destinations for travel this summer.

Civil aviation passenger traffic is gradually recovering, and the passenger load factor is also gradually increasing. 

According to data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the civil aviation industry logged 683,000 flight hours in June, a year-on-year decrease of 31.1 percent and an increase of 11.2 percent month-on-month. In June, the industry saw a total of 30.74 million passengers, a year-on-year decrease of 42.4 percent, a growth rate 10.2 percentage points higher than that of May, and an increase of 42.1 percentage points compared with February. 

The passenger loading rate of the three state-owned airlines - Air China, China Eastern and China Southern - has returned to more than 60 percent.