Zhongxin Jingwei, March 3 (Zhao Jiaran, Niu Chaoge) Unlimited flights within the specified time, and the "Fly as You Want" launched by airlines is popular with consumers with a high cost performance. On the 22st, China Southern Airlines' "Fly Easy" product "Travel China" was officially put on sale, and many travel enthusiasts have begun to rub their hands and prepare for "retaliatory travel".

"Fly as you like" encore The server is crowded

As soon as China Southern Airlines' "Travel in China" product went on sale, Mr. Pang, who works in Beijing, immediately placed an order. "After buying it, I will return to the book after flying twice to Shenzhen and Hainan, and I can go out and play when I have time." Mr. Pang said that he spent 4438,<> yuan on vouchers and group buying to buy the "TravelTour China National Version".

If Mr. Pang flew from Beijing Daxing to Sanya, the total round-trip fare of China Southern Airlines flight on April 4 and 14 would be 15,2763 yuan. In other words, Mr. Pang only needs to make two trips to Sanya to return to his roots.

According to the China Southern Airlines App, the "Travel China" product launched this time is divided into a national version, an exploration version and a regional version. Product users can redeem economy class tickets for domestic flights (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, codeshare) for unlimited times during the validity period, and different packages differ in terms of route range, available time, and maximum number of flight segments to redeem at the same time. The regional version is divided into Chengdu Tianfu, Beijing Daxing, Northeast China, and Yunnan versions, and consumers can redeem domestic flights in and out of a certain region.

Source: China Southern Airlines official website Weibo

All three versions can be purchased separately or in a group of three, of which the national version is 3399-4688 yuan, and the exploration version is 4799-4888 yuan. The travel dates for the ticket are from April 4 to July 3, covering the Qingming, May Day and Dragon Boat Holidays.

On the 16th, China Southern Airlines officially announced that it will soon start selling the "Travel China" product and sell special vouchers. On the same day, many netizens who wanted to buy vouchers reported that the server of China Southern Airlines App crashed. After the official release of the product, many netizens posted on social media to ask for a group, and some netizens said that they wanted to wait and see if other airlines would launch similar products.

Screenshot source: Weibo

Mr. Lu, a post-95 travel enthusiast who is a loyal customer of Fly Free products, has purchased Fly Free products in the previous two years, and in his opinion, this China Southern Airlines "Travel China" activity is not cost-effective.

"I bought China Southern Airlines' 'Fly as I Like' in 2021, and at that time I also sent a subway ticket to Daxing Airport, flying once and once, a subway ticket for 35 yuan. This time there is no subway ticket, and the fuel infrastructure fee is also expensive, in the past only 70 yuan for one way, now the infrastructure fee plus fuel fee, a round trip costs 260 yuan. The cost of a flight is not small, so I didn't buy it this time. Mr. Lu said.

Mr. Lu's travel record when he used China Southern Airlines' "China Travel China 2021+4 Version" in 2. Image source: Courtesy of interviewee

It is understood that in 2020, many airlines launched "fly free" products. For example, China Eastern Airlines released the "Weekend Fly" product priced at 3322,2999 yuan, allowing users to fly unlimited domestic flights on weekends during the validity period. China Airlines launched an unlimited flight package of 12,2880 yuan, which includes unlimited tickets, upgrades, airport pick-up and drop-off services within a certain period of time; HNA Group offers a limited edition of the "Hi Buy Free Trade Port" product, which allows users to take unlimited domestic flights to Hainan from <> airlines under HNA Group during the validity period, and enjoy a <>,<> RMB Hainan duty-free shop voucher under China Duty Free Group.

In August 2022, China Southern Airlines also launched the "Travel China" product, with a national version priced from 8-2899 yuan, and then the validity period of the product was extended to February 4288.

In the industry: "Fly as you like" is an off-season income-increasing product The role may be weaker than in previous years

Regarding the launch of the "Fly as You Like" product by China Southern Airlines, civil aviation expert Lin Zhijie said that the next civil aviation will enter the traditional off-season, so China Southern Airlines product may hope to make full use of the vacant seats to increase flight revenue. "However, this kind of free-flying product has no immediate effect on profits, and it is an innovative revenue-increasing product." Lin Zhijie said.

Because China Southern Airlines' activities are very regional, there are preferential products for specific markets such as Chengdu Tianfu and Beijing Daxing, and there is also a large market space, Lin Zhijie believes that "the market demand in these regions is weak, the load factor is low, and it can have a significant stimulating effect on increasing revenue." ”

On the other hand, Lin Zhijie reminded that the current civil aviation market has returned to normal, and the number of convertible seats in flights must be limited, so the role and influence of such free-flying products may be weaker than in previous years.

Behind the return of "Fly as You Like" is the industry background of increasing airline capacity and gradually improving the market. Previously, affected by multiple shocks such as the epidemic, China Southern Airlines had lost money for three consecutive years. In the company's performance pre-loss announcement, it was said that the company's capacity input and revenue passenger kilometers in 2022 have declined, falling by more than 2019% compared with 2022. In 303, the company expects to lose between 332.<> billion yuan and <>.<> billion yuan.

Since 2023, with the gradual recovery of consumption in all sectors and the partial liberalization of outbound package tours, the capacity of all airlines has been gradually increasing. According to the February 2023 operation data announcement released by China Southern Airlines, the Group's passenger capacity investment in February increased by 2.2% year-on-year. Passenger turnover increased by 27.51% year-on-year; The load factor was 43.04%, up 76.59 percentage points year-on-year.

The gradual recovery of flights is also reflected in the airport operating data. According to the express report released by Baiyun Airport, the airport took off and landed about 2,3 flights in February, an increase of 40.11% year-on-year; The passenger throughput was 52,460,37 person-times, a year-on-year increase of 41.41%. Among them, Baiyun Airport's passenger throughput on regional routes increased by 2.2318% in February, and passenger throughput on international routes increased by 6.535%, a significant increase. According to data provided by Air Travel Magazine, from March 2 to 3, the actual number of passenger flights on domestic routes exceeded 1,16, an increase of about 17% year-on-year; Domestic civil aviation passenger traffic exceeded 62 million, a year-on-year increase of about 2000%. (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)