On January 7, 2023, the Spring Festival travel season will officially start. As the first Spring Festival travel season in which epidemic prevention and control has entered a new stage, this year’s Spring Festival travel volume will directly double compared to last year.
On January 6, at the press conference of the State Council Information Office, Xu Chengguang, vice minister of the Ministry of Communications, said that after preliminary analysis, the total passenger flow during the Spring Festival travel season was about 2.095 billion, an increase of 99.5% over the same period last year, and returned to the same period in 2019 (2.98 billion. 70.3% of people).
However, this year’s Spring Festival travel peak and the peak of the epidemic overlap, which also brings more uncertainties. Xu Chengguang said that this is the most difficult and challenging Spring Festival in recent years: “Every Spring Festival is a ‘big test’ for the transportation department, and this year’s ‘examination questions’ may be even more difficult.”
It is worth noting that while the flow of people during the Spring Festival travel has rebounded, the price of return air tickets across the country during the Spring Festival this year is also rising, which makes many passengers choose to travel by rail. “Air tickets are much more expensive than the previous two years. If you can grab It’s more cost-effective to take the high-speed rail.” Wen Wen (pseudonym) told Times Weekly reporter.
The railway is expected to send 6.3 million passengers on the first day
The 2023 Spring Festival travel season starts on January 7 and ends on February 15, a total of 40 days.
Today is the first day of the Spring Festival travel season, and the passenger flow of railways and airlines has ushered in a significant increase. According to the official WeChat account of China Railway, the national railways are expected to send 6.3 million passengers on the first day of the Spring Festival travel rush.
Times Weekly reporter learned from Zongheng Aviation Travel that on the first day of Spring Festival travel (January 7), the number of domestic scheduled flights exceeded 10,000, a year-on-year increase of about 13%; the number of daily passengers is expected to exceed 1 million, which will reach peak since.
At the same time, there are also many discussions on the Internet about this year’s Spring Festival travel. Die Zeit reporter noticed that this morning, #超级20人次大江运出现##2023年春运第一天##不消息高铁呀健##2023春运官方开始# and other Spring Festival-related topic words have appeared on Weibo one after another. hot search.
Source: Screenshot of Weibo APP
As the first Spring Festival travel since the comprehensive implementation of the optimization measures for epidemic prevention and control and various measures of “Class B and B Management”, many people “go home for the New Year” during the Spring Festival this year.
According to a preliminary analysis by the Ministry of Communications, the total passenger flow during the Spring Festival travel season was approximately 2.095 billion, 70% of the figure before the epidemic. From the perspective of passenger flow composition, it is estimated that visits to relatives will account for about 55% of the passenger flow during the Spring Festival, migrant workers will account for about 24%, and tourism and business travel will account for about 10% respectively. Many colleges and universities have been on vacation before the start of the Spring Festival travel season, and the proportion is relatively small compared with previous years. The proportion of self-driving cars, intercity carpooling, and customized passenger transport will further increase. The average daily flow of passenger cars on expressways is about 26.2 million, an increase of 3.6% over the same period last year.
According to the data of Hanglv Zongheng, in the past week, the booking volume of domestic airline tickets during the pre-holiday Spring Festival period (January 7-1.21) continued to grow, increasing by 3.5 times from the previous week, and the booking volume in Shanghai reached 4.3 times that of the previous week.
In order to make it easier for passengers to go home, airlines are also increasing their capacity. Wan Xiangdong, chief pilot of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at the press conference of the State Council Information Office that during the Spring Festival travel season, all civil aviation will arrange an average of 11,000 passenger flights per day. About 73% during the 2019 Spring Festival travel season.
Cheng Chaogong, chief researcher of Tongcheng Research Institute, analyzed that compared with the same period in 2022, the Spring Festival travel in 2023 will show a strong recovery momentum, and the passenger volume of the three major passenger transport sectors (railway, civil aviation, and highway) is expected to increase significantly. In terms of the overall trend of passenger flow, the peak passenger flow before the Spring Festival is relatively smoother than in previous years (the proportion of passenger flow during the peak period), but the flow of visiting relatives and migrant workers will still have a significant superimposed effect within 5 to 7 days before the Spring Festival. The capacity of rural lines is still tight, and it is difficult to find tickets for popular directions.
“Air tickets are too expensive, I bought a high-speed rail ticket”
It is worth noting that during the Spring Festival travel this year, air tickets showed a rising trend of “both volume and price”.
According to the big data of Qunar, since December 31, 2022, the number of air ticket bookings during the Spring Festival travel period (January 7-February 15) has increased day by day, with a single-day increase of more than 20%.
In terms of price, a reporter from Times Weekly learned from Zongheng Airlines that during the pre-holiday Spring Festival travel period (1.7-1.21), the average price of air tickets for domestic routes is about 1,100 yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 30%.
In the face of rising air ticket prices, many passengers have turned to travel by rail, and Gao Feng (pseudonym) is one of them.
Gao Feng works in Beijing and lives in Panzhihua. Because the direct flight from Beijing to Panzhihua is too expensive, he chooses to transfer home every Spring Festival. During the Spring Festival last year, Gao Feng first flew from Beijing to Kunming, and then took the bullet train from Kunming to Panzhihua. The whole trip cost less than 1,400 yuan. This year, due to the price increase of air tickets, Gao Feng gave up this route home.
“During the Spring Festival last year, I spent a total of 1,277 yuan on the air ticket from Beijing to Kunming, including the fuel for the machine construction. This year, the flight from Beijing to Kunming on the 19th, including the fuel for the infrastructure, cost me a minimum of 2,000 yuan.” Gao Feng told Times Weekly The reporter said that for this reason, he bought a high-speed train from Beijing to Chengdu this year, which only costs 840.5 yuan per ticket. “At that time, I will take the bullet train from Chengdu to Panzhihua. The newly opened route this year will cost less than 200 yuan.”
Wenwen also told the Times Weekly reporter that during the Spring Festival in 2021 and 2022, her round-trip air tickets will cost 958 yuan and 1,580 yuan respectively, and the one-way air tickets home this year are more expensive than the round-trip air tickets in the previous two years.
According to data from the same journey travel platform, from January 5th to the morning of January 7th, pre-holiday train tickets ushered in the peak bookings for returning home. The booking volume reached 2.5 times that of the same period in December, an increase of 50% compared with the same period in 2021.
It is worth mentioning that today (January 7), train tickets for the first day of Spring Festival travel plus New Year’s Eve are on sale, and some popular train ticket routes are in short supply. According to the same journey travel data, as soon as the New Year’s Eve train tickets went on sale at 8:00 in the morning, most of the train tickets from Beijing to Wuhan, Changsha, Fuyang, Xi’an, Taiyuan, and Yueyang were already displayed as “standby” status.
Faced with the shortage of train tickets this year, many users choose to make reservations in advance to ensure that they can buy return tickets smoothly. According to data from the same journey travel platform, in the past 3 days, the number of train ticket reservations for return trips after the Spring Festival has increased by 276% month-on-month.
Cheng Chaogong said that compared with the pre-holiday period, the return peak passenger flow after the festival is relatively more concentrated. January 27 (the sixth day of the first lunar month) and 28th (the seventh day of the first lunar month) will be the first peak after the festival. Mainly migrant workers and tourists. Around February 6 (the 16th day of the first lunar month) will be the second return peak after the festival. The passenger flow structure is mainly migrant workers and students.
Source: Tuchong Creative