China Eastern Airlines gears up for Spring Festival travel rush

Major hubs such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou of Guangdong province and Chengdu of Sichuan province are seeing increased flight frequencies to second- and third-tier cities to facilitate travel for family reunions and vacations. New domestic routes have also launched, such as Shanghai to winter destinations such as Changbaishan in Jilin and Daqing in Heilongjiang.

On international routes, China Eastern resumed 103.8 percent of its 2019 passenger flight during the holiday rush. As the extended 8-day holidays allow travelers to take longer vacations through combined leave, demand for taking longer vacations and going overseas increases, said Hu.

Bookings for Australia, South Korea and Japan routes are booming. And new international routes added for the period include Shanghai Pudong Airport to Iwate Hanamaki Airport in Japan, Beijing Daxing Airport to Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam, and Shanghai to Marseille in France and Casablanca in Morocco. Frequencies have also increased from multiple Chinese cities to popular destinations including Okinawa and Toyama in Japan  and Sydney in Australia.

With the 9th Asian Winter Games Harbin 2025 taking place in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, winter sports destinations are seeing particularly high demand this season, according to Hu.