China Eastern Airlines to operate 3,280 flights daily for Spring Festival

China Eastern Airlines is scheduled to operate 3,280 flights per day during the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush which will start on Jan 26 through to March 5, up 42 percent year-on-year, and China's first self-developed narrow-body jet C919 will serve in the peak traveling season for the first time, according to the Shanghai-based carrier.

The amount of air travel passengers is projected to hit a record high, and about 80 million passenger trips will be handled during the 40-day rush period, or 2 million passenger trips per day, up 9.8 percent from the same period of 2019, according to estimates by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

China Eastern has planned to put 783 aircraft into operation for the Spring Festival travel rush this year, and the jets will carry out 330,000 flying hours in total.

For the first time, all four C919s in China Eastern's fleet will be put into service for the traveling peak season on the Beijing-Shanghai and Shanghai-Chengdu routes, said the carrier.

Major aviation hubs of China Eastern will see a rise in handling capacity in the 40-day travel rush starting on Jan 26. For example, Shanghai Pudong International Airport will have 6.4 percent daily flights more than the pre-Spring Festival traveling period, and that of Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport will grow by 5.4 percent.