China's air passenger traffic hit new record in July, domestic flight bookings for summer holiday has surged 99% from 2019-level

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The strong travel demand during this year’s summer holiday has boosted China’s civil aviation market to expand further in July, with air passenger traffic hitting a new record high, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China on Tuesday.

The civil aviation sector recored a passenger traffic of 62.428 million last month, surging 83.7% from a year earlier and rising by 5.3% from the same period in 2019, setting a new monthly record, said the CAAC.

In particular, domestic air passenger traffic reached 59.08 million in July, surging 74.6% from a year ago, up 16.8% from the previous month and rising 12.1% from the 2019-level, showed the data.

International air passenger traffic reached 3.35 million last month, rising by 32.6% from the previous month and representing about 50.9% of the level in the same period in 2019.

Earlier, the CAAC had predicted that China’s the average daily domestic air passenger volume is expected to reach 1.83 million during this year’s summer holiday, the first after the lifting of strict Covid control measures, up 7% from the pre-pandemic level, while domestic flight volume is expected to rise by 11% to 13,600.

As of August 14, the average flight booking volume for trips during the summer holiday this year rose by 50% from a year earlier, surging 99% from the same period in 2019, according to data from flight information platform Hangban Guanjia.

The strong air travel demand has pushed higher air ticket prices. The average air ticket price, economy class, has reached 938 yuan, rising by 37% from a year earlier and up 7% from the same period in 2019, showed the data.

The sector’s total cargo transportation reached 11.37 billion tonne kilometers in July, surging by 67.1% from a year earlier, rising for the 8th consecutive month and surpassing the level in the same period in 2019 for the first time, it said.