BEIJING: China has scheduled extra domestic flights to cater to increased demand during upcoming holidays, the national civil aviation regulator said.
In addition to about 100,000 flights every week, another 4,250 are planned during the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday starting on Sunday, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said. The administration has also arranged 4,406 additional flights during the weeklong National Day holiday starting on Oct 1.
Because of the scattered COVID-19 outbreaks across China in the past two months, travel has been limited, causing the civil aviation sector to miss out on its peak summer season, said Shang Kejia, deputy director of the administration’s transport department.She added that summer traffic was down 42 percent compared with 2019 and down 16.6 percent compared with last year.
More trips are expected to be made during the two holidays than over the summer, she said, based on data from search results on online travel agencies.
“Part of the desire to travel suppressed in summer will be released during the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays,” Shang said.
The travel peaks are expected to fall on Saturday, ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, and on Sept 30, Oct 6, 7 and 10 for the National Day holiday.
The two holidays, usually close together, are considered the “golden time” for travel. Before the COVID-19 epidemic, many Chinese people combined the holidays to travel overseas.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
