No air travel rush expected this year, says senior official

There won't be a travel rush in the civil aviation sector this year, a senior official said at a news conference organized by the State Council Information Office on Saturday.

Li Jian, deputy head of Civil Aviation Administration of China, said that due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, domestic airlines transported less than 470,000 passengers on average each day between Jan 25 and Feb 14, only one-fourth of that in the same period in 2019.

The administration estimated that the decline in passenger volume will continue.

For the following week between Feb 15 and 23, a daily average of less than 200,000 passengers are expected to take flights, a number less than 10 percent of the past travel peak, he said, adding that the load factor is less than 40 percent.

"Most people have canceled their vacation or business trips because of the epidemic while people serving in governments and administrative units have already gone back to their posts, relieving the pressure of sending passengers in coming months," he said.

So far, domestic and overseas airlines have returned 20 million tickets for travelers with par value reaching 20 billion yuan ($2.86 billion), he said. 

The administration has released four policies on full ticket refunds since Jan 21. "If colleges postpone the reopening of schools, we will also prolong the validity of these policies," he said.