Starting from March 26, China Civil Aviation began to implement the 2023 summer and autumn season flight plan. The execution time is from 26th to October 28th, 2023.
In this year’s summer and autumn flight season, a total of 169 domestic and foreign airlines plan to arrange 117,222 passenger and cargo flights per week.
In terms of newly opened routes, 38 airlines have arranged a total of 6,659 flights per week on 726 new domestic solo routes, mainly involving routes between airports such as Ordos and Zhanjiang and airports such as Chongqing and Dalian. In order to meet the growing demand of the tourism market, airports in Beijing, Dalian and other places have also focused on resuming flights to popular tourist cities such as Haikou, Xishuangbanna and Beihai.
The relevant person in charge of the Transportation Department of the Civil Aviation Administration said that this year’s summer and autumn flights will change seasons, and the Civil Aviation Administration will resume domestic flights in a scientific, orderly and stable manner on the basis of a good safety assurance capability assessment, so as to better meet the travel needs of the public. At the same time, under the premise of ensuring safety, we will promote the steady and orderly recovery of international passenger flights.
International and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan routes have recovered significantly
A prominent feature of this year’s summer and autumn flight season is that international and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan routes have recovered significantly. Major airlines have carefully deployed flights for the new season according to market demand to facilitate travel for passengers.
According to the overall arrangement of the Civil Aviation Administration, domestic and foreign airlines plan to arrange 10,580 international passenger flights per week during the summer and autumn seasons. Among them, 28 domestic airlines plan to arrange 6,772 international scheduled passenger flights every week, connecting 101 cities in 55 countries; 88 foreign airlines fly to my country from 79 cities in 47 countries.
Specifically, routes to popular tourist destinations such as Southeast Asia and Australia and New Zealand have recovered relatively quickly. In order to meet the travel needs of passengers, Air China will continue to add an average of 101 new international and regional flights such as Beijing-Ho Chi Minh City and Chengdu-Phuket Island starting today. The resumption of China Southern’s international flights is mainly concentrated in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.
Song Ting, deputy manager of the Aviation Rights Management Office of the Capacity Network Department of China Southern Airlines: In the summer and autumn of 2023, China Southern Airlines will operate 74 international and regional routes, with 732 flights per week. Guangzhou forms a “4-hour air traffic circle” with major cities in Southeast Asia, and a “12-hour air traffic circle” with major cities around the world.
In the new flight season, Shanghai Hongqiao Airport officially resumed international and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan routes. Among them, the number of routes of China Eastern Airlines at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport will reach 56 flights per week, recovering to 75.7% of 2019. Hainan Airlines will operate more than 20 international and regional routes such as Beijing-Brussels and Beijing-Moscow, reaching Europe and North America.
In terms of flights on Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan routes, according to the overall arrangement of the Civil Aviation Administration, a total of 36 airlines will arrange a total of 3,463 passenger and cargo flights per week in this summer and autumn season, a year-on-year increase of 30.83% in the summer and autumn season of 2022. With the introduction of the policy of fully resuming personnel exchanges between the Mainland and Hong Kong and Macau, the demand for passenger travel has been further released.
According to data from the Hong Kong Tourism Board, in February this year, the number of tourists visiting Hong Kong reached 1.46 million. In the past three years, the number of tourists visiting Hong Kong in a single month exceeded one million for the first time. In the face of strong market demand, airlines are actively increasing the frequency of flights on key popular routes.
Hou Wei, Chairman of Hong Kong Airlines: We feel that the demand for flights from China to Hong Kong is growing rapidly, and we need to coordinate all resources to meet market demand as quickly as possible while ensuring safe operations and service guarantees .
Qi Qi, an expert at the China Civil Aviation High-quality Development Research Center: The rapid recovery of the aviation industry, especially the international passenger transport industry, reflects to a large extent that my country is accelerating the domestic and international dual cycles. In the future, the momentum of international exchanges, business exchanges and tourism exchanges will continue to accelerate, and the demand for the entire international passenger transport route will continue to increase.