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Domestic airlines are seeing soaring demand for flights and rising ticket price as the National Day holidays approach and an industry information provider predicted that the total travel during the seven-day holiday could be more than 7.8 million passenger trips.

The surge in demand comes despite several cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Xi'an advising residents to stay put during the holidays in order to reduce the risk of spreading the pandemic, following recent flare-ups across the country.

The number of domestic passenger flights has gradually recovered and the average daily volume now exceeds 7,000 flights, information provider VariFlight told the Global Times on Tuesday.

It is estimated that during the National Day holidays, the average daily passenger flight volume will be around 10,000 flights, a decline of 20 to 30 percent from the same period last year. The total travel during the seven-day holiday could be more than 7.8 million passenger trips, VariFlight said.

Statistics from information provider Cirium showed that various airlines plan to have 97,524 flights, an increase of 7.5 percent from 2021, and the number of seats will be up 5.2 percent from the previous year. The increase of the seat numbers shows the airlines want to explore more tourism markets in small cities and small airports, the report said.

Data from several online travel platforms showed that the fares are significantly higher than during this year's Mid-Autumn Festival.

Data from travel platform Qunar.com showed that the number of domestic airline bookings for the National Day holidays has been increasing day by day since the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The average price paid for domestic airline tickets during the National Day holidays in 2022 is 666 yuan ($92.78), an increase of 13 percent compared with the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, the air ticket price is still 14 percent lower than the previous holidays in 2021.

The price of economy class tickets on some popular routes has soared, such as Beijing to Lijiang, Guangzhou to Zhangjiajie and Guangzhou to Jiuzhaigou, according to Qunar.com.

The Chinese mainland on Sunday reported 235 local confirmed COVID-19 cases including 154 cases in Southwest China's Guizhou Province and 35 in Sichuan Province. There were 597 asymptomatic carriers including 184 in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the National Health Commission said on Monday.