China's aviation market got off to a good start during the recent New Year's Day holiday period, showing a trend of rising flight volumes alongside falling prices.

During the three days between December 30, 2023, and January 1, 2024, the number of domestic civil aviation passenger trips exceeded 4.2 million, marking an increase of nearly 90 percent year on year, according to data from Chinese flight tracker Umetrip.

This number represented an increase of over 10 percent over the same period of 2019.

At the same time, China's domestic air ticket purchases increased by 110 percent year on year, while the average price of air tickets for the economy class was 606 yuan, down by 11 percent year on year, Chinese aviation data platform Flight Master told The Paper.

In 2024, China will promote the steady growth of the domestic aviation market, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) officials said at its annual work conference on Thursday. 

For the entirety of 2024, passenger traffic on domestic routes is forecast to reach 630 million passenger trips, 7.7 percentage points higher than that in 2019, said CAAC.

China will also intensify its efforts to bring international flights to pre-COVID-19-pandemic levels in 2024, with 6,000 flights per week by the end of this year, the civil aviation regulator said.

CAAC officials said China will comprehensively stimulate demand in the aviation market, make plans to expand domestic demand, improve supply-side structural reforms, and contribute to the construction of a new development pattern for aviation services.

(Cover via CFP)