Air China to offer more flights for Spring Festival

Air China plans to arrange more international flights during the Spring Festival travel rush to meet the needs of an increasing number of outbound passengers, especially to popular destinations including areas in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, according to the company on Tuesday.

This year's Spring Festival travel rush period will begin on Friday and end on March 5.

During the rush, the company plans to operate 187 international round-trip flights every day, about 79 percent of the volume seen in 2019, according to Liang Peng, head of the company's operation control center.

During last year's rush, the number of international flights accounted for about 60 percent of the volume in 2019.

A total of 111 overseas flights will be offered by the carrier during the 40-day period this year.

"As more convenient visa and customs clearance policies have been rolled out, people's overseas travel needs are expected to increase," Liang said.

The official said that the company will arrange for more flights to more popular destinations during the rush, including between Beijing and Phuket, Thailand, and between Wuhan, Hubei province, and Macao.

Data from the end of last year showed China had 4,782 weekly international round-trip flights, about 62.8 percent of the number seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company plans to operate 67,691 flights during the travel rush, up 32 percent compared to 2019.

According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, a record of over 80 million passenger trips are expected to be made by air during the travel rush, averaging 2 million trips per day, which is a 9.8 percent increase compared to 2019.

An average of 16,500 flights are scheduled each day during the travel rush.