Passengers at Beijing Daxing International Airport Photo: Courtesy of Beijing Daxing International Airport

The China civil aviation industry has witnessed a spike in demand over the past eight-day "Golden Week" holidays, as data showed that daily transported passengers have nearly doubled from 2022 levels.  

In contrast, the recovery of overseas flights and passenger volume is still far from pre-epidemic levels. 

The country's civil aviation facilitated a total of 17.082 million passenger trips during this year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, with an average daily transport of 2.14 million, an increase of 194.9 percent from the same period in 2022, data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) showed on Saturday. 

Daily numbers were up by 12.6 percent from 2019 levels, the data showed. 

The positive data came in the wake of the eight-day holidays which ran from September 29 to October 6, with several airports breaking records for airline patronage. 

For example, the two airports in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province welcomed a total of 12,900 takeoffs and landings, with passenger throughput of 2.033 million, and a cargo throughput of 15,000 tons, representing an average daily increase of 150.3 percent, 235.1 percent, and 44.2 percent respectively than the same period last year, with all three indicators marking a record high.

Harbin Taiping International Airport received a total of 3,547 flight takeoffs and landings, transporting more than 529,000 passengers, a year-on-year increase of 109.6 percent and 169.4 percent than the same period of last year, or year-on-year increase of 10 percent and 13.8 percent respectively than in 2019, which was also a record high.

The strong numbers are shoring up an optimistic outlook for China's civil aviation sector recovery, which has experienced what is being regarded as the hottest National Day 'Golden Week' in five years, as Chinese tourists flocked to popular attractions across the country.

However, the recovery of overseas flights and passenger volume has not met the growth rates seen for domestic flights, per industry data.

Data from Flight Master showed that compared with the National Day holiday in 2019, the average daily number of overseas flights was 1,534, still down 42.2 percent compared to 2019.

Among them, the flight volume of the top 20 destinations accounted for 89.6 percent of total international flights, mainly concentrated in East Asia and Southeast Asia, but the recovery rate of the flights to Thailand remained under 50 percent. 

The data is in line with data from National Immigration Administration, which showed that enthusiasm for overseas travel surged as a total of 11.81 million entries and exits across the country were processed by border inspection authorities, at an average of 1.48 million per day over the eight-day holidays.

This represents an approximately 2.9-fold increase compared to the same period last year, and is 85.1 percent of the number from the same period in 2019, the department confirmed on Saturday. 

Global Times