China's weekly international flights recover to over half of pre-pandemic levels
China has promoted the steady and orderly resumption of global civil aviation market as the number of weekly international flights has recovered to more than half of the volume before the epidemic, an official from the Civil Aviation Administration said on Friday.
The number of weekly international flights has resumed to 52 percent of the volume in 2019, said Jin Junhao, deputy director of the transport department of the administration.
He made the remarks at a news conference in Beijing.
China has resumed passenger flights with about 90 percent of countries compared with the figure before the epidemic.
"It is worth noting that the number of flights to 14 countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy and the Maldives, has exceeded the level before the epidemic," he said.
China's civil aviation market has grown significantly from the epidemic this year since the country adjusted its COVID-19 management measures.
During the upcoming National Day and the Mid-Autumn Day holidays, about 21 million passenger trips are expected to travel by air during the 8-day holiday, which will begin at the end of this month.
During the holiday, the civil aviation service provider plans to arrange 137,000 flights, about 17,000 flights per day.
Among them, 14,000 flights are planned on domestic routes every day, up by 18 percent compared with the same period in 2019. These domestic flights are planned to carry 1.96 million passenger trips, an increase of 17 percent compared with 2019.
The holiday, also known as the Golden Week holiday, is a popular travel time for many Chinese people, for family visits or travel.
The administration has encouraged airlines to increase capacity in popular routes such as replacing large model fleet to cater for the growing demand in domestic market, Jin said.
Airliners are also encouraged to expand their business to smaller cities to further extend domestic air network, he said.
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