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Mainland China domestic flights push past pre-COVID levels as the country gears up for the National Day Golden Week holiday, says Cirium

Travel World China | Dateï¼š2020-9-25

- Scheduled domestic flights during Golden Week 2020 are up by more than 11% compared with 2019
- Mainland Chinese holidaymakers and home visitors are expected to fill more than 27.8 million domestic aircraft seats during the peak travel period from September 30 to October 11, 2020
- Shanghai will beat Beijing as the country's most popular domestic air travel destination
- Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport will be Mainland China's busiest individual airport
- The Golden Week peak suggests that Mainland China's domestic air travel industry is on course for recovery and marginally positive year-on-year growth

Hong Kong, September 25, 2020: Although most air travel markets have been hit hard by COVID-19, the volume of domestic flights in Mainland China during this year's annual "Golden Week" holiday, from October 1 to 8, looks set to push well past last year's record, according to the global travel data and analytics expert Cirium.

Often called "the world's largest annual human migration," the peak travel period for this year's Golden Week will be between September 30 and October 11. A snapshot of Cirium Core data taken on September 23 shows more than 164,700 domestic flights scheduled during the period. This represents an increase of more than 11% compared with the same time in 2019 when approximately 148,000 flights flew.

This year passengers will fill more than 27.8 million domestic aircraft seats during Golden Week, with the busiest day being October 7, when over 13,800 domestic flights are scheduled to take to the air. That is an increase of 9.6% over the busiest day in 2019 (October 6) when more than 12,600 domestic flights carried holidaymakers to destinations across the country.

"COVID-19 has clearly had a major impact on Mainland China's international and domestic flight schedules. Between January 1 and September 23, 2020, 18% of scheduled international flights and 17% of scheduled domestic flights were not flown. However, when it comes to year-on-year growth, the story is completely different, with international registering a 77% drop, while domestic suffered a more modest 16% decline*," Rahul Oberai, Cirium Managing Director for APAC.

"Some regions are showing signs of recovery as travel restrictions begin to ease. However, those with large domestic markets, such as China are the ones most likely to see capacity bounce back or even achieve some level of positive growth," he added.

Shanghai beats Beijing as the most popular domestic destination

This year the most popular Golden Week destination for domestic air travellers is Shanghai. Its two airports - Shanghai Pudong International (PVG) and Shanghai Hongqiao International (SHA) will welcome more than 10,800 flights between September 30 and October 11, and over 900 on October 7 alone.

The capital, Beijing, is a close runner up. It will see some 9,840 flights fly in between September 30 and October 11, and close to 830 arriving at its Beijing Capital International (PEK) and Beijing Daxing International (PKX) airports on the busiest day of the annual break (October 7).

The third most popular Golden Week domestic air travel destination will be Guangzhou. Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport will be the country's busiest individual airport, with more than 7,280 flights arriving between September 30 and October 11 and more than 600 on the busiest day. It will be followed by Chengdu (CTU), Shenzhen (SZX), Kunming (KMG), Chongqing (CKG), Xi'an (XIY) and Hangzhou (HGH), with Nanjing (NKG) rounding out the top 10.

"The positive Golden Week domestic traffic figures are good news for Mainland China and an encouraging sign for other regions. They also demonstrate what Cirium has been saying since the start of the pandemic - that during the recovery, travel patterns may be fragmented, with VFR (visiting friends and relatives) traffic driving journeys ahead of business traffic," said Oberai.

*The latest Mainland China domestic and international scheduled flight data is available on Cirium website.

Sourceï¼šCirium