10 million Chinese travellers take to the skies during Golden Week holiday
Total number of air travel passengers up 11.6pc from year earlier period, aviation authority says
China’s civil aviation industry served close to 10 million passengers during the peak “Golden Week” holiday this year as the number of Chinese travellers continues to rise.
The number of passengers totalled 9.96 million, up 11.6 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
China’s Golden Week break is a week-long national holiday and often sees Chinese tourists travelling to different Chinese cities or neighbouring countries.
A 2016 National Day Holiday travel report by Chinese travel services company Ctrip predicted that 589 million Chinese travellers are expected to spend 478 billion yuan (US$71.6 billion) over the holiday period.
According to preliminary data by the CAAC, the average load factor for flights in the first week of October reached over 80 per cent. Load factor measures how efficiently an airline fills seats on its flights to generate revenue.
Cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Guangzhou reported a more than 90 per cent average load factor on outbound flights during the week.
The number of flights also jumped 18.6 per cent compared to the same period in the previous year, with a total of 82,865 flights over the week.
