Aviation experts Cirium, whose head of consulting Asia Joanna Lu, was a panellist on eGlobal Travel Media’s very successful recent “What Might The Future of Aviation Look Like” during and after Covid-19, report that scheduled domestic flights during Golden Week 2020 are up by more than 11% compared with 2019
Cirium says that the Golden Week peak suggests that Mainland China’s domestic air travel industry is on course for recovery and marginally positive year-on-year growth and while most air travel markets have been hit hard by COVID-19, it is clear according to Cirium, the volume of domestic flights in Mainland China during this year’s annual “Golden Week” holiday, from October 1 to 8, looks set to push well past last year’s record.
Often called “the world’s largest annual human migration,” the peak travel period for this year’s Golden Week will be between September 30 and October 11, with a snapshot of Cirium Core data taken on September 23 showing more than 164,700 domestic flights are scheduled during the period, representing an increase of more than 11% compared with the same time in 2019 when approximately 148,000 flights flew.
This year passengers will fill more than 27.8 million domestic aircraft seats during Golden Week, with the busiest day being October 7, when over 13,800 domestic flights are scheduled to take to the air. That is an increase of 9.6% over the busiest day in 2019 (October 6) when more than 12,600 domestic flights carried holidaymakers to destinations across the country.
Rahul Oberai, Cirium Managing Director for APAC told eGlobal Travel Media, “COVID-19 has clearly had a major impact on Mainland China’s international and domestic flight schedules.”
“Between January 1 and September 23, 2020, 18% of scheduled international flights and 17% of scheduled domestic flights were not flown.”
“However, when it comes to year-on-year growth, the story is completely different, with international registering a 77% drop, while domestic suffered a more modest 16% decline*,”
He added, “Some regions are showing signs of recovery as travel restrictions begin to ease. However, those with large domestic markets, such as China are the ones most likely to see capacity bounce back or even achieve some level of positive growth”
With the most popular Golden Week destination for domestic air travellers being Shanghai, its two airports – Shanghai Pudong International (PVG) and Shanghai Hongqiao International (SHA) will welcome more than 10,800 flights between September 30 and October 11, and over 900 on October 7 alone.
The capital, Beijing, is a close runner up, with some 9,840 flights fly in between September 30 and October 11, and close to 830 arriving at its Beijing Capital International (PEK) and Beijing Daxing International (PKX) airports on the busiest day of the annual break (October 7).
The third most popular Golden Week domestic air travel destination will be Guangzhou., with Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport the country’s busiest individual airport, with more than 7,280 flights arriving between September 30 and October 11 and more than 600 on the busiest day. It will be followed by Chengdu (CTU), Shenzhen (SZX), Kunming (KMG), Chongqing (CKG), Xi’an (XIY) and Hangzhou (HGH), with Nanjing (NKG) rounding out the top 10.
Mr Oberai said, “The positive Golden Week domestic traffic figures are good news for Mainland China and an encouraging sign for other regions. They also demonstrate what Cirium has been saying since the start of the pandemic – that during the recovery, travel patterns may be fragmented, with VFR (visiting friends and relatives) traffic driving journeys ahead of business traffic”.
*The latest Mainland China domestic and international scheduled flight data is available at Cirium.
A report by John Alwyn-Jones
.jpg){kind=tracking}