The summer travel peak in China has confirmed the recovery of the air travel market following the Covid-19 period. This is highlighted by a boom in Chinese travelers visiting Japan this summer and extra flights being launched between the two countries. The rush to visit Japan has been fueled by Chinese students taking their summer vacations, and the favorable exchange rate of the Japanese yen, making hotels, meals and attractions more affordable. The strong outbound travel demand has prompted more Chinese airlines to launch new direct flights and increase the frequencies of current flights to Japanese cities, including smaller ones. Shanghai-based private budget carrier, Spring Airlines recently increased the number of daily round-trip flights from Shanghai to Osaka to five, up from two last year, after adding extra flights to Japan ahead of the peak season. Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines operates direct flights connecting Shanghai Pudong International Airport with smaller Japanese cities such as Shizuoka, Okayama and Komatsu, in addition to flights to major Japanese cities. Juneyao Airlines, another Shanghai-based private Chinese carrier, operates flights connecting Shanghai to Sapporo and Hokkaido.
China’s air travel market has witnessed a strong recovery after the pandemic. In the first half of this year, there were 350 million passengers traveling by air, growing 24% year-on-year. The figure was 9% above the pre-pandemic level in 2019, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The growth indicates that the country’s air travel market has completely emerged from the shadow of the pandemic, and the sector is steadily returning to its natural growth level, the CAAC said. Meanwhile, the number of international and regional air passengers in the first half of this year rebounded to 79% of the 2019 level. Travel demand between China and Europe, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, in particular, has been strong, the CAAC said. “Driven by major events such as the Paris Olympic Games, there has been a significant increase in the number of flights from China to France. Besides, airlines have added more flights to countries such as Denmark, Hungary and Greece,” Xu Qing, a CAAC official said.
The CAAC said it will support Chinese and foreign airlines increase their capacity on international passenger routes, further boost the number of flights based on market conditions, and better meet the travel demand of passengers. With multiple countries introducing favorable visa policies for Chinese travelers, along with China’s visa-free policy for some foreign countries, China has seen a significant growth in the number of inbound and outbound passengers. In the first six months of this year, 14.64 million foreign travelers visited China, with the number surging 152.7% year-on-year, according to the National Immigration Administration (NIA). Among those, 8.54 million foreigners visited the country through visa-free entry, accounting for 52% of the total. 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 at 17,361, an increase of 13.87% 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 carried 3.7 million passengers at Singapore’s Changi Airport, or about 11% of the total passenger volume. The numbers exceeded, or approached, the pre-pandemic level of 2019 for five consecutive months, the airport said.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently released global data for June. Total demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometers, was up 9.1% compared with June 2023. Total capacity, measured in available seat kilometers, was up 8.5% year-on-year, and the passenger load factor was 85% in June. “Demand grew across all regions as the peak northern summer travel season began in June. With overall capacity growth lagging demand, we saw a very strong average load factor of 85% achieved in both domestic and international operations,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General. In addition to strong growth, a number of foreign carriers recently canceled their international flights that connect overseas cities with Chinese mainland cities and Hong Kong, as they had to reroute flights to bypass Russia airspace, leading to increased flying time and higher fuel costs, the carriers said. British Virgin Atlantic announced in July that it would suspend its flights connecting Shanghai Pudong International Airport and London Heathrow Airport after operating the route for 25 years. The last round-trip flights will operate on October 25 and 26, the China Daily reports.
In the first half of this year, domestic airlines operated 72.2% of China-Europe flights, and foreign airlines operated 27.8%. Before the pandemic, there was not much difference in the share of such flights, when Chinese carriers made up 52.7%, and foreign airlines accounted for 47.3%, Flight Master found, as reported by the China Daily.
