Chinese airlines plan more seasonal domestic flights

BEIJING - Chinese airlines have added more domestic flights to their schedules for the upcoming summer-autumn aviation season, the country's civil aviation regulator said Friday.

Spanning from March 28 to Oct 30, the summer-autumn aviation season will likely see 92,756 domestic flights per week, up by 10.7 percent from the same season in 2020, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Domestic and overseas airlines have altogether scheduled 5,972 weekly international cargo flights for the new season, a notable 32.8-percent growth from the winter-spring aviation season, the CAAC said.

International passenger flights will maintain a low frequency due to the country's COVID-19 prevention measures. The number of international passenger flights will rise slightly from winter and spring to 644 every week in the new season. It is approximately 3 percent of the pre-pandemic level.

The CAAC added that Chinese airlines would launch more domestic routes during the new season to improve its air route network.

China's civil aviation industry expects to see passenger trips recover to around 90 percent of the pre-epidemic level in 2021, the CAAC said. The volume of cargo and mail transported by air will also likely bounce back to the pre-epidemic level.

The latest CAAC data showed that China's civil aviation industry handled about 23.95 million passenger trips in February, a jump of 187.1 percent year-on-year.