China News Service, Haikou, February 14 (Reporters Wang Xiaobin, Wang Ziqian and Fu Yuqun) Hainan tourism is booming during the Spring Festival holiday in the Year of the Dragon. Halfway through the holiday, demand from a large number of tourists to leave the island exploded, resulting in a shortage of air tickets to Hainan's outlying islands and high prices. The Hainan Provincial Tourism Authority coordinated with airlines to increase transportation capacity to meet passenger travel needs.
According to statistics, the overall passenger flow in Hainan during the Spring Festival in 2024 will increase by more than 30% year-on-year. Air tickets to the island before the Spring Festival and out of the island during and after the Spring Festival are both in short supply. At present, the passenger flow out of Hainan is growing continuously. The passenger flow out of the island has reached a peak on February 13 (the fourth day of the Lunar New Year). It is expected that the peak passenger flow will continue until around the tenth day of the Lunar New Year.
The reporter checked the websites of multiple online travel platforms such as Ctrip and Meituan on February 14 and found that during the peak return period on February 16 and 17, Sanya Phoenix International Airport and Haikou Meilan International Airport flew to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places. Economy class tickets in the city are sold out, and the remaining business class fares are as low as 10,000 yuan (RMB, the same below) and as high as close to 20,000 yuan.
According to the Hainan Provincial Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports, in order to alleviate the shortage of transportation capacity, Hainan’s transportation and tourism industry authorities have coordinated with major airlines to increase transportation capacity and switch to wide-body aircraft. Currently, Sanya’s investment in wide-body aircraft has accounted for 21%.
It is understood that because some aircraft slots at Sanya Phoenix International Airport are under maintenance, it is difficult to further increase capacity. For this reason, airlines recommend that passengers who have not purchased tickets in advance avoid direct flights from Sanya to popular cities. In most cases, departing from Haikou and Boao is more feasible than departing directly from Sanya. Passengers can also choose to depart from Haikou and transfer to a nearby city.
"The peak return trip is expected to occur on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, and the single-day passenger flow is expected to exceed 120,000." Pan Ying, the security inspection supervisor at the security checkpoint at Haikou Meilan International Airport, said that in the face of the upcoming peak return trip passenger flow, Meilan Airport Actively coordinate airlines to increase the capacity of flights in and out of Haikou. On the other hand, it provides passengers with more convenient and warm services by opening additional security check channels, check-in counters, and deploying additional security check assistants. (over)