"This holiday season, people's willingness to travel has become stronger, there are more flights to choose from, and major airports have become more and more lively." During this year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, Sun Zhao, who lives in Beijing, took his parents and children to start an unforgettable trip to Yunnan and Guizhou.
According to data released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, during this year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday (from September 9 to October 29, a total of 10 days), the country's civil aviation transported a total of 6.8 million passengers, with an average daily transport of 1708.2 million passengers, an increase of 213.5% over the 2019 National Day holiday (an average of 189.7 million passengers per day) and an increase of 12.6% over the 2022 National Day holiday (an average of 72,4 passengers per day).
Specifically, during the holiday, there were 134321 actual flights across the country, with an average of 16790,2019 guaranteed flights per day, an increase of 2.58% compared with the National Day holiday in 2022 and an increase of 109.46% compared with the National Day holiday in 94; The flight regularity rate was 58.2019%, an increase of 1.65% compared with the 2022 National Day holiday and a decrease of 3.38% compared with the <> National Day holiday.
In terms of airports, the passenger flow of Shanghai Pudong Airport and Hongqiao Airport fully recovered to the level of the same period in 2019 during the Double Festival, with a peak daily passenger flow of more than 34,3 passengers. The three airports in Haikou, Sanya and Qionghai Island under Hainan Airport all hit a new high during the National Day holiday during the "Double Festival". The number of flight movements and passenger throughput completed by the three airports during the period increased by more than 2022.1 times and 4.2 times respectively compared with 5, and increased by more than 2019% compared with 20.
There has been a significant increase in the demand for air travel
In response to the significant improvement of travel data, Xiao Peng, a researcher at Qunar Big Data Research Institute, said: "After three years of the new crown epidemic, it will take time for the supply side to restart, but passenger demand has exploded. The industry can only step up its recovery while supporting services and constantly improving the details. It can be seen that at the beginning of the year, hotel prices skyrocketed; Before the May Day holiday, it was difficult to find a ticket for high-speed rail. Obviously, the experience of 'picking up leaks' when buying tickets in the past is no longer effective in a market where supply is less than demand. ”
"When it comes to the 'Double Festival', the number of high-speed rail trains has increased, the missed tickets before the holiday have reappeared, and niche destinations have returned to the field of vision... All kinds of data show that the tourism market is gradually returning to normal. Xiao Peng told reporters that Qunar data shows that the number of air ticket bookings to Dandong, Liaoning, Hechi, Guangxi, Zhoushan, Zhejiang, and Jingdezhen, Jiangxi during this holiday has increased by more than 2019% compared with the "Eleventh" holiday in 2019; The number of air ticket bookings to Baicheng in Jilin, Quzhou in Zhejiang, Bazhong in Sichuan and Ganzi in Sichuan has more than doubled compared with the National Day holiday in <>.
While domestic tourism is on the rise, as the first long holiday after the basic full liberalization of outbound tourism, during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, outbound tourism ushered in a blowout growth, and people's demand and willingness to travel are very strong.
According to data from Ctrip, outbound travel orders during the "National Day" period increased by more than 8 times year-on-year. Judging from the "Eleventh" air ticket booking data, the post-90s group is still the "main force" among outbound passengers, accounting for nearly one-third of the total; The post-00s have the fastest growth rate, accounting for 80% of the post-22s. Popular air destinations are still concentrated in Hong Kong, Macao and Asian countries; Compared with the "May Day" holiday, cross-continental long-haul countries such as Switzerland, Spain, Turkey, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and other countries have the fastest growth rate.
"At present, the actual number of international passenger flights carried out each week has recovered to 2019% of 52 levels, and the number of countries with passenger flights has recovered to nearly 90% of the pre-pandemic level." At a press conference of the Civil Aviation Administration of China in September, Jin Junhao, deputy director of the transportation department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said that the number of flights to 9 countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy and the Maldives, has exceeded the pre-pandemic level.
In fact, in order to promote the orderly resumption of international flights, since the beginning of this year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has set up a special working group to increase internal and external coordination, further facilitate the exchange of Chinese and foreign personnel, and take a number of measures to support the operation of airlines, and implement the policy of suspending the 10% increase in the take-off and landing fees of Chinese and foreign airlines at first- and second-class airports to reduce the cost of new flights for airlines.
"The Civil Aviation Administration of China supports Chinese and foreign airlines to increase capacity investment in the international air transport market and actively resume international flights." Jin Junhao told reporters that in particular, the situation between China and the countries jointly built by the "Belt and Road" is significantly better than the overall level of China's international routes. At present, the proportion of passenger traffic on the "Air Silk Road" in China's international aviation market continues to increase, reaching 71%, an increase of 2019 percentage points over the same period in 13, leading the recovery of the international aviation market.
It is worth noting that behind the rapid recovery of the civil aviation industry, major airlines and airport staff are working overtime to ensure the smooth and orderly operation of flights. In order to meet the travel needs of passengers during the holidays, Air China Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Air China") has deployed more than 9,28 flights from September 10 to October 8.
According to the head of Air China's publicity department, in light of market demand, Air China has focused on increasing its capacity investment in areas with obvious holiday effects, such as the western region, southern China, northern China, and northern and western regions. Among them, for routes in hot spots such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan, Guizhou and Hainan, we will increase investment in centralized areas by increasing shifts and changing larger models, and at the same time accurately match the characteristics of market flow.
China Eastern Airlines Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Eastern Airlines") and its subsidiaries Shanghai Airlines, China United Airlines and 3 Airlines carried out 57,2981 flights, with an average of 95,4 flights per day. During this period, China Eastern Airlines and its airlines invested 2019.20 billion seat kilometers of capacity, an increase of about 23.3% compared with 2. Among them, there were about 72,73 domestic flights, with a capacity of 2019.130 billion seat kilometers, <>% of the same period in <>.
The reporter learned that according to the booking trend, China Eastern Airlines actively increased the delivery of capacity during the festival, optimized the route network arrangement, and planned to work overtime for 124 flights, encrypting Shanghai Hongqiao-Hohhot, Shanghai Pudong-Jinzhou, Shanghai Hongqiao-Guiyang, Shanghai Pudong-Qiqihar, Shanghai Pudong-Yanji, Hefei-Guilin, Hefei-Qingdao and other routes.
China Eastern Airlines has also carried out a "small to large" model change for popular routes, from single-aisle narrow-body aircraft to wide-body aircraft with larger capacity, and the number of large-scale flights has reached 969. Domestic flights between Shanghai and Northeast China, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Guiyang, Xi'an, Yinchuan, Kunming, Sanya, Ganzhou and other places, Beijing Daxing and Haikou, Sanya, Chongqing, Chengdu, Dunhuang, Urumqi and other places, as well as regional flights to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and international flights to some destinations around the Asia-Pacific region, are arranged to change to larger aircraft according to the passenger flow.
"The Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day are superimposed, and the number of passenger trips has maintained a high growth." According to the relevant person in charge of China Southern Airlines Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Southern Airlines"), China Southern Airlines Group (including Xiamen Airlines) has nearly 9,27 overtime flights (two round-trip flights) from September 10 to October 8 to ensure the smooth travel of passengers during the holiday.
Domestically, China Southern Airlines operates 2200,<> flights a day, focusing on tourism, family visits and homecoming needs, mainly increasing flights from Guangzhou to Wuhan, Haikou, Qingdao and Guiyang, Shenzhen to Lanzhou, Xi'an and Harbin, and Beijing Daxing to Haikou, Chengdu and Guilin.
In terms of international and regional flights, in order to meet the international travel needs of passengers, China Southern Airlines mainly arranges additional flights on routes from Guangzhou and Shenzhen to Southeast Asia, and from Northeast China and central cities to Japan and South Korea, with about 2000,<> international and regional flights scheduled to be carried out during the Double Festival.
The tourism consumer market is hot
The continuous increase in the number of passengers has also contributed to the profitability of major airlines. Not long ago, seven domestic listed airlines disclosed their financial reports for the third quarter of this year, with a total profit of 7.176 billion yuan in a single quarter, which is also the first time that the seven major airlines have collectively turned around their losses after the new crown epidemic.
Among the three major airlines, Air China had the highest net profit of 42.42 billion yuan in the third quarter, China Southern Airlines had a net profit of 41.95 billion yuan in the third quarter and China Eastern Airlines had a net profit of 36.42 billion yuan in the third quarter.
The China Aviation Association also recently disclosed that from January to September, domestic airlines achieved a cumulative profit of 1.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 96.4 billion yuan, and 1371 airlines achieved a cumulative profit. Some industry analysts pointed out that in the context of the end of the summer peak season and the rise in oil prices, there are still many airlines that have achieved profitability, and such financial reports show that the civil aviation industry has basically walked out of the haze of the epidemic and entered a new stage of recovery and development.
In terms of airports, during the Double Festival holiday, in order to serve the smooth travel of passengers, Zhengzhou Airport has launched a series of high-quality services, especially to strengthen the service for families traveling, the elderly, children, and passengers with reduced mobility. Within 8 days, in order to ensure that more than 300 wheelchair passengers can travel freely during the festive season, Zhengzhou Airport provided a two-way "one-stop" special guidance service from the cabin door to the entrance of the intercity railway; For unaccompanied children, we launched the "Unaccompanied Children Walk" warm-hearted service, and joined hands with various airlines to safely and quickly send more than 200 children to distant relatives without family accompaniment.
In order to cope with the peak passenger flow, Harbin Airport strengthened its front-line support forces during the holiday, and the check-in counters and security channels were opened in all directions to shorten the waiting time of passengers. At the same time, it has strengthened service guidance in passenger check-in, security check, boarding and other service links, launched convenient service measures, set up a "one-stop" love green channel for first-time passengers and special passengers, arranged special personnel to be responsible, and gave priority to providing full-process escort services for first-time passengers, unaccompanied elderly people, children, etc.
During the festival, Beijing Daxing Airport, on the one hand, a variety of traffic security measures made concerted efforts, the subway Daxing Airport Line (airport-downtown direction) cooperated with the subway in the city to delay, and the airport bus Fangshan Line and Tongzhou Line increased the number of departures. At the same time, Daxing Airport fully coordinates the reserve of taxi and online car-hailing capacity.
On the other hand, Daxing Airport has placed "love service self-service boxes" at the entrance of the terminal, information counters, manual check-in counters, and corridor entrances, equipped with "love bracelets" and "use hand cards". Passengers who are in a hurry to catch the flight can also receive a green express passenger bracelet, and the staff will link up with the relevant posts after identification.
In the view of independent analyst Xu Hong, the 8-day "Super Golden Week" composed of Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day has made the tourism consumption market unprecedentedly hot. The demand for family reunion, cultural leisure and tourism and vacation in China has been released intensively, and flight sales in various places have shown strong demand.
Xu Hong believes that the recovery of the tourism market is the most important factor in the recovery of civil aviation passenger volume. Local cultural and tourism departments have vigorously promoted the integration of tourism with performing arts, sports and other fields, and innovated tourism products, which has effectively stimulated the willingness to travel, which has undoubtedly boosted the recovery of the air passenger market.
At present, domestic civil aviation services are concentrated in hub cities such as provincial capitals, and the aviation demand of third- and fourth-tier cities has yet to be effectively met. Xu Hong suggested that the civil aviation industry may wish to continue to innovate the service model of "trunk branch connection, full network connection", build a brand of through flights, improve the efficiency of transfer connection, and optimize the network radiation capacity.
This model can make major cities in China efficient and smooth, cities in remote areas effectively connected, and constantly open up new market space. Only by better promoting the supply-side structural reform of civil aviation can we further enhance the recovery momentum of the industry while expanding domestic aviation demand.
"It can be expected that favorable policies will further accelerate the high-quality development of the domestic tourism industry, especially the development of outbound tourism and inbound tourism business. After the recovery of domestic tourism accelerates and basically recovers to the level of the same period in 2019, with the resumption of international flights and the optimization of visa policies, the consumption enthusiasm of Chinese tourists will extend to outbound travel, and China will also attract more and more international tourists to China. Xu Hong told reporters.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Zhang Zhenqi Source: China Youth Daily