Summary

  • The 2024 summer peak season for China’s civil aviation is a 62-day period with an expected 133 million passengers.
  • China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, and Air China top domestic flight operators with over 40,000 flights each.
  • Other airlines like Hainan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, and Sichuan Airlines also increase flight operations for the summer peak.

Each year, the traditional “summer peak season” occurs in China’s civil aviation industry in July and August. During this time, the entire industry, including airlines, airports, regulators, and air traffic control units, treats the “summer peak season” as a special task. Last year, during the summer peak season, the total passenger volume in China’s civil aviation exceeded 20% of the annual total.

Two weeks ago, on July 12, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) announced at its monthly press conference that the 2024 summer peak season began on July 1 and will end on August 31, lasting 62 days. During this summer peak season, the civil aviation market is expected to maintain its peak season trend, with a total passenger volume expected to reach 133 million, averaging 2.15 million passengers daily. This represents a 10% increase compared to 2019 and a 5% increase compared to 2023.

So, which airlines are expected to operate over 20,000 domestic flights in August?

China Southern Airlines

70446

China Eastern Airlines

69518

Air China

49323

Hainan Airlines

24850

Shenzhen Airlines

23823

Sichuan Airlines

21972

China Southern Airlines

China Southern Airlines plans to offer 70,446 domestic flights in China this coming August, providing 12,440,338 seats and 10,976,879,097 available seat miles (ASMs).

According to China Southern Airlines, the airline group plans to operate nearly 200,000 flights between July 1 and August 31, with an average of 3,300 flights per day. During the summer holiday, China Southern Airlines plans to schedule additional flights on more than 100 routes, with over 14,000 additional flights. During the peak of the summer travel season, from mid-July to late August, the airline plans to operate an average of 240 additional flights per day.

China Southern Boeing 737 MAX

Photo: Jeffry Surianto / Shutterstock

On domestic routes, China Southern Airlines has added and increased flights primarily to popular tourist cities in Xinjiang, Northeast China, Northwest China, and North China. In response to the recent surge in tourism to Xinjiang, the airline has launched new routes connecting Altay with Shanghai, Shenzhen, Yinchuan, Changchun, Wuhan, and Harbin, with a total of 52 weekly flights.

Additionally, China Southern Airlines has increased the number of flights from Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Guiyang, Wuhan, Harbin, and Shenyang to Urumqi and launched new routes from Beijing Daxing and Shanghai to Changbaishan, with one daily round-trip flight. The airline has also increased flights from Beijing Daxing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to popular markets such as Xining, Yinchuan, and Lanzhou, and added new routes from Hailar to Shenzhen, Changsha, and Zhengzhou.

China Eastern Airlines

China Eastern Airlines plans to offer 69,518 domestic flights in China this coming August, providing 11,354,682 seats and 8,595,699,905 available seat miles (ASMs).

According to the 2024 summer peak season flight plan released by China Eastern Airlines on the first day of the summer travel season, the airline plans to operate an average of 3,213 passenger flights per day during this period, a 13% increase compared to the same period in 2019. China Eastern Airlines will deploy nearly 800 aircraft for the summer peak season.

On domestic routes, China Eastern Airlines has primarily added new flights to popular summer destinations in Xinjiang, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai, and Tibet. The new and increased routes include Shanghai Pudong–Altay, Beijing Daxing–Urumqi, Shanghai Hongqiao–Dunhuang, Shanghai Hongqiao–Hohhot, and Guangzhou–Dali.

Related

China Eastern Airlines Resumes Longest Domestic Flight Between Shanghai and Kashgar

With a flight time of six hours, China Eastern Airlines’ direct route connects Shanghai in eastern China with Kashgar in the far west.

For China Eastern Airlines, another key highlight of this summer peak season is the C919 aircraft. As the only airline currently operating the C919 commercially, this summer marks China Eastern’s first full-scale deployment of the C919 during the peak travel season. According to information released by the airline this week, in the first three weeks of the summer peak season (July 1–23), China Eastern’s C919 fleet operated 366 flights, transporting over 49,000 passengers with an average load factor of 86%. Currently, China Eastern’s six C919 aircraft are operating on routes from Shanghai Hongqiao to Chengdu Tianfu, Beijing Daxing, Xi’an, and Guangzhou.

A China Eastern Airlines COMAC C919 taxiing at Shanghai Airport.

Photo: COMAC

The domestic routes currently operated by China Eastern’s C919

Inaugural flight day

Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) – Chengdu Tianfu (TFU)

May 29, 2023

Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) – Beijing Daxing (PKX)

Jan 9, 2024

Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) – Xi’an Xianyang (XIY)

Mar 8, 2024

Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) -Guangzhou Baiyun (CAN)

Jun 14, 2024

Air China

Air China plans to offer 49,323 domestic flights in China this coming August, providing 8,863,342 seats and 7,602,522,302 available seat miles (ASMs).

As the flag carrier of China, Air China is significantly increasing its international route capacity for the summer peak season. New routes will include Beijing–Dhaka and Chengdu–Milan, along with the resumption of the Shanghai–Barcelona route. Air China’s international and regional routes will recover to over 90% of their 2019 levels.

Air China

Photo: Boeing

Domestically, similar to China Southern Airlines, Air China is focusing on increasing capacity to popular destinations such as Xinjiang and the Chengdu-Chongqing region, as well as summer resort cities like Guizhou and Hailar. During the summer, the daily number of domestic flights will reach 1,444, a 39.2% increase compared to 2019.

Other major operators

The fourth to sixth-ranked airlines are Hainan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, and Sichuan Airlines, offering 24,850, 23,823, and 21,972 domestic flights in China, respectively, this August.

According to Hainan Airlines, the airline expects to operate 864 flights per day during the summer peak season, a 10.6% year-on-year increase. The airline anticipates transporting over 8 million domestic passengers, a growth of about 5%.

Hainan Airlines will operate over 500 routes during the summer peak season, covering more than 80 cities across China. The airline is launching 20 new routes.

Hainan Airlines Boeing 737-800

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

Shenzhen Airlines focuses on routes departing from Chengdu during the summer peak season. The airline will launch three new cultural and tourism routes from Chengdu and increase the frequency of two existing routes. Shenzhen Airlines has also optimized its services for unaccompanied minor passengers to prepare for the summer peak.

A Shenzhen Airlines Airbus A320 parked at an airfield.

Photo: Airbus

On June 28, three days before the start of the summer peak season, Sichuan Airlines received an A350 aircraft (registration number B-32G2) in Chengdu, bringing its fleet size to 197 aircraft (including five freighters).

During the summer peak season, Sichuan Airlines plans to operate approximately 300 domestic routes, with the highest number of daily flights expected to exceed 740.

A Sichuan Airlines Airbus A319 airplane at Chengdu airport (CTU) in China
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

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