Air travel during Spring Festival expected to set record

Passenger trips by air will hit a record high in the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush, according to a news release by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on Thursday.

The 40-day Spring Festival travel rush for 2020 will begin on Jan 10 and end on Feb 18.

According to the release, the civil aviation sector will handle 79 million passenger trips during the travel rush, a projected year-on-year rise of 8.4 percent.

The administration said there will be over 16,000 flights in service during the rush.

So far, there are about 9.32 million reservations for flight tickets for the travel rush, up 13.9 percent year-on-year, according to the release.

Flight reservations to domestic destinations will rise 23.9 percent, and those to overseas destinations will be up 9.54 percent year-on-year.

However, reservations to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan declined by 18.9 percent from the previous year, the administration said.

Capacity and ticket reservations between the Chinese mainland and the United States and Australia will see a downturn for the first time in the past four years, it added.

Airlines to Japan, Thailand and South Korea will be the busiest during the travel rush.

Also, trips to France will see an increase during the Spring Festival.

The administration stressed safety and travel services for the approaching travel rush to secure better experiences for travelers.

For example, there are 229 airports across the nation that allow travelers to board with electronic passes to simplify the procedures.

Also, 360 planes at eight airlines have offered Wi-Fi to about 7.1 million travelers so far.

The administration will also enhance the monitoring system for weather and air traffic to improve the performance of airlines.