A view of the Terminal 3 of Beijing Capital International Airport on Wednesday Photo: VCG

China's airports, train stations and tourist sites have witnessed a surge in travelers over the past May Day holidays, with the crowds coming as a positive forward indicator for China's airline industry.

Official data showed that Chinese travel demand has been released thanks to China's effective handling of the pandemic, the number of passenger trips made by air has seen a dramatic increase compared with the same period last year and has almost recovered to the level of 2019.

About 8.7 million passengers took flights during the five-day May Day holidays, up 173.9 percent year-on-year, and recovered 99.2 percent compared to the same period in 2019.

The average passenger load factor during the holidays was 80.7 percent, 14.6 percentage points higher than that of 2020, and 3 points lower than 2019; and 74,229 flight trips have been made during the holidays, up 84.21 percent year-on-year and down 7.7 percent compared with 2019.

The transport capacity and passenger capacity has exceeded that in 2019, making it the hottest holidays for airlines, and it will definitely help the airlines narrow their loss, Lin Zhijie, a market watcher told the Global Times on Thursday.

Full preparation 



During the May Day holidays, driven by demand, major airlines have arranged large amounts of domestic capacity.

According to China Eastern Airlines, 2,710 flights were carried out on May 1, transporting more than 360,000 passengers. Among them, high load factor routes mainly included Shanghai-Chengdu, Shanghai-Chongqing and Shanghai-Xiamen, with the load factor for some routes close to 100 percent.

From April 30 to May 5, China Eastern planned to launch more than 16,000 flights, of which domestic flights are set to increase by 25 percent compared to the same period in 2019. In addition, China Eastern launched 170 wide-body aircraft on average per day, doubling the same period in 2019.

China Southern Airlines said, from April 29 to May 6, it planned to invest more than 20,000 flights, with a maximum daily average of 2,800 flights, which is more than twice the year-on-year increase in 2020.

China Southern has arranged wide-body aircraft with more seats for the markets with strong passenger demand in Hainan, East China, and Northwest China. 

During the holidays, it plans to put in more than 1,700 wide-body flights, and during the peak period, flights to Sanya and Beijing Daxing and Pudong have all wide-body aircraft. 

Spring Airlines said the willingness of passengers to travel during the May Day holidays this year was significantly higher than in 2019. Judging from the ticket sales data, as of late April, the ticket sales data for the May Day holidays increased by more than 55 percent over the same period in 2019.

To woo more passengers, Spring Airlines reallocated its idle international capacity into domestic market and opened up a large number of new domestic routes. Currently, it operates 624 routes, an increase of 30 from 2019.

Beijing Daxing International Airport said during the holidays, it has transported more than 610,000 passenger trips, a big jump from previous years.

Clear skies?

The bumper holiday was backed up by additional data.

During the May Day holidays, 113.23 billion yuan ($17.48 billion) flowed into China's tourism sector, up 138.1 percent year-on-year and about 77 percent of that of pre-epidemic levels, according to data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. A total of 230 million domestic trips were made over the five days, compared with 637 million trips during the eight-day Golden Week holidays last year which combined the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.   

Hainan Airlines said that on April 29, April 30, and May 1, the single-day transportation revenue exceeded the 100 million yuan mark for three consecutive days, exceeding levels in 2019.

Among them, the single-day transportation revenue on April 30 hit a new high since the epidemic. The domestic passenger flight volume and passenger transportation volume have increased significantly year-on-year of 7.8 percent and 10.1 percent.

Air ticket price is also rising, bringing hope that airlines may return to profitability.

For example, a full ticket price for a single-ticket from Beijing to Nanchang, East China's Jiangxi Province on May 5 is 1,570 yuan. In comparison in early 2020, airlines' domestic air tickets have repeatedly displayed cabbage [cheap] prices, with discounts as high as 98 percent, and some domestic routes have fares less than 100 yuan. 

Lin attributed the performance to the longer holidays, at five days, two days longer than previous years, bringing a rising demand, and the retaliatory consumption also brings the upward demand, as well as an effective epidemic measure taken which creates a good travel atmosphere. 

He predicted an accelerated recovery for air travel, given spotted COVID-19 cases have not hurt the market, and the market performance will be better.

Chinese airlines recorded a loss of 10.48 billion yuan in January, followed by a loss of 11.61 billion yuan in February, and a loss of 7.96 billion yuan in March.