Air travel emerges from turbulence of pandemic

Among those, 8.54 million foreigners visited the country through visa-free entry, accounting for 52 percent of total entries. The administration projected that foreign travelers' enthusiasm for visiting China will keep growing in the second half of the year.

The air travel market in China has entered its summer peak season, and domestic airports are expected to handle 1.08 million takeoffs and landings, with the average number of daily flights 17,361, an increase of 13.87 percent compared with the 2019 pre-pandemic level, according to statistics compiled by Civil Aviation Data Analysis.

Chinese travelers have also shown greater interest in traveling abroad. In the first half of this year, China-Singapore round-trip flights accounted for 3.7 million passengers at Singapore's Changi Airport, or about 11 percent of the total passenger volume. The numbers exceeded, or approached, the pre-pandemic level seen in 2019 for five consecutive months, the airport said.

The numbers of passengers from Shanghai, Xiamen, Fujian province, and Kunming, Yunnan province, have been growing the fastest. The 30-day visa-free entry between China and Singapore, as well as the increase in flight capacities, has driven the passenger volumes between the two countries, the airport said.

The International Air Transport Association recently released global data for June. Total demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometers, was up 9.1 percent compared with June 2023. Total capacity, measured in available seat kilometers, was up 8.5 percent year-on-year, and the passenger load factor was 85 percent in June.

"Demand grew across all regions as the peak northern summer travel season began in June. And with overall capacity growth lagging demand, we saw a very strong average load factor of 85 percent achieved in both domestic and international operations," said Willie Walsh, IATA's director general.

"Operating with such high load factors is both good and challenging. It makes it even more important for all the stakeholders to operate with equal levels of efficiency to minimize delays and get travelers to their destinations on schedule," Walsh said.