A significant change during this year's Spring Festival travel rush has been the increase in air ticket prices alongside rising passenger numbers and flight volumes. On March 13, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport Company Limited (600004.SH) prominently released a set of operational data: over 39 days of the travel period (February 2 to March 12, 2026), it handled a cumulative total of 10.19 million passengers, becoming the first airport in China to exceed ten million passengers during a Spring Festival travel season, setting a historical record. This coincided with the conclusion of the 40-day travel rush. Subsequently, Shanghai Pudong International Airport also announced the milestone of surpassing ten million passengers: handling 10.099 million passengers and 64,000 aircraft movements over the 40 days, setting record highs for both flight and passenger volumes during any previous Spring Festival period. Overall data disclosed by the civil aviation authority similarly showed: during the 40-day travel rush, China's civil aviation system transported a total of 94.39 million passengers, averaging 2.36 million per day, a 4.6% increase compared to the same period in the 2025 Spring Festival travel season. A total of 759,000 flights were operated, averaging 19,000 per day, with both passenger volume and flight numbers reaching new record highs for the period.
Accompanying the release of record-breaking data by various airports and airlines, a notable change this year has been the rise in air ticket prices corresponding to the increase in passenger and flight volumes, shifting away from the post-pandemic pattern of high passenger volume without corresponding revenue growth during holidays.
The most popular destinations during the travel rush, according to statistics, were concentrated at hub airports like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, which have strong demand for returning home and tourism travel, as well as airports serving popular destinations for winter sports and warm-weather vacations, such as those in Northeast China and Hainan. Internationally, travel was concentrated within a "five-hour flight circle" including Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Vietnam, and Russia. Additionally, countries like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Papua New Guinea, Morocco, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands saw relatively fast growth in passenger numbers.
This year marked the first Spring Festival travel season since Hainan's island-wide customs closure policy, leading to a significant surge in travel热度 to Hainan. Taking Sanya Airport as an example, it handled 18,000 aircraft movements and transported over 3.57 million passengers during the period, with year-on-year increases of 1.0% and 4.6% in movements and passenger volume respectively.
Data obtained from China Eastern Airlines Corporation Limited (600115.SH) indicates that routes for "ice and snow tourism" to destinations like Harbin, Changchun, Changbaishan, and Altay led the market during the travel rush. Popular international and regional routes were mainly concentrated in South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia, with high load factors on routes to and from Melbourne, Moscow, London, Bangkok, Seoul, Chiang Mai, as well as Hong Kong and Macau.
Data from VariFlight shows that during the travel period, international outbound destinations were concentrated in Southeast Asia, accounting for nearly 50% of flights. Among the top outbound destination countries, Thailand regained the top position, while flights to Japan decreased sharply by 50.2%. Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Laos saw significant flight growth. In contrast, Japan had previously been the hottest outbound destination during recent holidays. During this Spring Festival period, the overall cancellation rate for flights from mainland China to Japan reached 49%, with no observable recovery trend in daily data. Shanghai Pudong Airport was the main departure point for Japan-bound flights, accounting for nearly 50% of the total. Among the top 10 airports, Nanjing Lukou, Beijing Daxing, and Tianjin Binhai had relatively high cancellation rates for Japan-bound flights.
Notably, unlike last year's travel season, this year saw both volume and prices rise in civil aviation travel. According to VariFlight statistics, the average price for domestic economy class tickets during the 2026 Spring Festival travel rush reached 909 yuan (including taxes), a 3.9% increase compared to the 2025 period. The daily trend showed a dumbbell-shaped structure with higher prices in the middle and lower prices at the beginning and end. Compared to同期 data, price fluctuations in 2026 were more volatile, indicating that airlines focused premium pricing on the core holiday week while offering discounts during the pre-holiday warm-up and post-holiday conclusion phases. This contrasts with the post-pandemic pattern seen during several National Day and Spring Festival holidays, where travel volume increased but prices fell.
The shift to "volume and price rising together" this Spring Festival can be attributed primarily to passenger demand growth outpacing capacity growth: passenger volume increased 4.6% year-on-year, while flight capacity increased only 2.7%. Simultaneously, the user demographic for holiday air travel showed a clear trend towards higher quality preferences and younger age groups. On various platforms, bookings for domestic first and business class tickets by first-time flyers were increasing, reflecting that new air travelers place greater emphasis on comfort and experience.
Furthermore, the civil aviation authority's inclusion of "standardizing air transport market pricing behavior" as a key work focus has also influenced this year's ticket pricing to some extent. In 2025, the Civil Aviation Administration of China repeatedly emphasized "strengthening price monitoring, supervision, and inspection to maintain market order," requiring airlines to enhance price self-discipline, strengthen sales channel management, and stabilize price levels.
It is noteworthy that even after the Spring Festival holiday this year, while ticket prices on many routes dropped immediately, the lowest fares (excluding taxes) generally did not fall below 200 yuan. This is related to the authority's continued efforts to curb cutthroat competition and restrict excessively low pricing by airlines. During the 2026 civil aviation work conference, the CAAC head indicated plans to research and formulate measures for investigating passenger transport costs and explore establishing a linked mechanism for monitoring and early warning of airfares, coordinating efforts to strengthen supervision of online sales platforms. Information from multiple airlines also indicates that the CAAC is collecting relevant data from carriers to calculate costs on different routes, providing a basis for the upcoming "airfare monitoring and early warning" system aimed at preventing恶性 competition through pricing below cost.
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