This year's Spring Festival transportation is the first Spring Festival transportation after the smooth transition of epidemic prevention and control, and the cross-regional flow of people in the whole society will hit a record high, and the civil aviation passenger traffic is expected to exceed 80 million, an increase of 9 compared with the Spring Festival transportation in 20198%, an increase of 44 compared with the Spring Festival in 20239%, which will also set a new record.
Capital Airport during the Spring Festival (photo by reporter Wang Yang).
In order to ensure that the majority of passengers can enjoy safe, convenient and warm civil aviation services during the Spring Festival, all airlines have taken the Spring Festival operation as an important political task and a people's livelihood project, resolutely built a solid safety bottom line, continued to increase capacity investment, and strived to improve service levels, so as to convey the temperature of civil aviation and demonstrate the responsibility of civil aviation on the road of passenger reunion.
Build a solid bottom line of safety to ensure a safe journey.
In 2023, starting from the actual production and operation, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has formulated a seven-stage plan for the safe and orderly recovery of transportation production, aiming to ensure that personnel qualifications, fleet airworthiness, and reliability of facilities and equipment are restored and improved simultaneously with transportation production, and that the transportation scale and safety guarantee capabilities are always matched. Facts have proved that this recovery plan has achieved remarkable results, civil aviation units have scientifically coordinated safety and development, safety and efficiency, and on the basis of the overall stability of the safety situation, transportation production has basically recovered to the pre-epidemic level, achieving the overall goal of consolidating the foundation and resuming the first development.
Capital Airport during the Spring Festival (photo by reporter Wang Yang).
In the face of the first Spring Festival transportation after a smooth transition, the Civil Aviation Administration of China emphasized that safety is the most important responsibility and the most basic livelihood of the people, and continued to require airlines to arrange flight plans scientifically and reasonably on the premise of building a solid bottom line of safety to ensure that the capacity is fully prepared and the resources are in place.
During the Spring Festival travel period, Air China's 15 major production units and 105 seats will ensure safe take-off and landing and efficient operation of flights around the clock. Its global ground flight support platform can dynamically track the status of flights, and through the digitization of production processes, refined flight monitoring, intelligent resource dispatch and mobile front-line production, it can truly achieve "one flight at a time, one link at a time", and ensure that each node is grasped in a timely manner. In response to the frequent occurrence of special weather in winter, Air China has established an emergency support mechanism to make adequate preparations in terms of personnel, equipment and materials, strengthen on-duty duty during the Spring Festival travel period, arrange special teams to strengthen transportation command, refine the response plan for severe weather and other situations, strengthen the risk warning of complex weather, large-scale flight delays and other emergencies, strengthen accurate meteorological forecasting, strengthen dynamic monitoring and information notification, and activate the emergency response mechanism in a timely manner, so as to provide passengers with safe, reliable, healthy, comfortable, efficient and high-quality services.
The first cold wave of this year came almost simultaneously with the Spring Festival, and the south suffered the heaviest rain and snow since the beginning of winter, and many places ushered in heavy snowstorms. In snowy weather, snow or ice may accumulate on some parts of the surface of the aircraft fuselage, which will affect the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft and make it more difficult to control the aircraft. In addition, key instruments on the fuselage surface can fail due to ice accumulation, leaving pilots unable to grasp the aircraft's real-time flight status. Aircraft de-icing is an important step to ensure the safe operation of flights in snow and ice.
On February 5, Wuhan Tianhe Airport carried out aircraft de-icing (photo courtesy of Hubei Airport Group).
Before the start of the Spring Festival, Chongqing Airlines has made full preparations to ensure the safety of winter flight operations by formulating de-icing plans, organizing annual re-training for de-icing, carrying out de-icing drills, and inspecting aviation spare parts and equipment. With the low temperature and snowfall in the central urban area of Chongqing, Chongqing Airlines quickly started the aircraft de-icing work, coordinated with various support units to carry out de-icing operations on key parts of the aircraft such as the large wing, fuselage, and rudder, strengthened the safety inspection of important components, and escorted the smooth travel of passengers.
In the face of the key points of winter flight operation support, such as aircraft de-icing and snowing, low-visibility operation, and windy weather operation, the flight crew of Kunming Airlines strengthened the research and judgment of the route weather before the flight, and strengthened the safety tips related to complex weather operation. The maintenance engineering department has sent additional front-line technical backbones to strengthen the inspection and monitoring of important parameters of the aircraft, and do a good job in aircraft de-icing and support in a timely manner. At the same time, the company's operation center strengthens the connection with the airport meteorological center, tower and command center, continues to pay attention to meteorological information, and keeps a close eye on flight operations in real time to ensure that flight operations are safe, smooth, stable and controllable.
Increase capacity investment to meet travel demand.
Although the passenger flow of this year's Spring Festival travel may set a new record, many passengers reported that it seems "not so difficult" to buy tickets for this year's Spring Festival, which is the result of airlines' increased capacity investment on the basis of improving support capacity.
According to **, the average daily guaranteed flights during the Spring Festival in 2024 will reach 1650,000 classes, basically the same as the same period in 2019 and an increase of 24% over the same period in 2023. Domestically, in order to facilitate airlines to ensure the capacity of the Spring Festival, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has implemented the optimization and adjustment of flights in the winter and spring seasons and mid-season routes, and a total of 3,198 domestic routes have been approved to increase by 3,198 flights per week. Internationally, more than 2,500 new scheduled international flights and overtime charter flights will be added during the Spring Festival travel period, most of which will be operated around the Spring Festival holiday. From the perspective of regional distribution, most of the new flights are concentrated in Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea and other neighboring countries and regions.
With the high superposition of the flow of family visits, students, workers and tourists, it is expected that the passenger traffic of civil aviation will reach a new high. In order to meet the demand, Air China plans to arrange 67,691 flights during the Spring Festival travel period, with an average of 1,693 flights per day, an increase of 32% over the same period in 2019 and 40% over the same period in 20236%。At a press conference held on January 23, the relevant person in charge of Air China revealed the company's capacity arrangement for this year. China Eastern Airlines plans to launch 783 passenger aircraft during the Spring Festival travel period, with a total flight time of more than 330,000 hours, and plans to operate 3,280 passenger flights per day, a year-on-year increase of 42%. At the same time, all four C919 domestic large passenger aircraft of China Eastern Airlines will usher in the "debut" of the Spring Festival and fly on the Beijing-Shanghai and Shanghai-Chengdu routes. China Southern Airlines Group plans to operate more than 11 flights during the Spring Festival30,000 flights, including about 10 domestic flights80,000 classes. Hainan Airlines plans to operate about 30,000 domestic flights, a year-on-year increase of more than 10%; Nearly 1,600 international flights are planned, recovering to nearly 60% of the same period in 2019; More than 6 million seats are planned, a year-on-year increase of nearly 20%.
C919 made its debut during the Spring Festival (photo courtesy of China Eastern Airlines).
Tourists from the south see the snow in the north, tourists from the north go south to escape the cold, and the snowflakes in Harbin and the "flowers" in Shanghai take turns to "circle fans" on social **, reflecting the new trend of "swapping residents between the north and the south for the New Year" this year. Airlines have taken advantage of the trend and increased capacity investment around relevant popular routes, so that "ice and snow routes" and "winter routes" have formed a linkage. Air China has increased its investment in routes to key tourist cities in the north and south, such as Haikou, Sanya and Harbin, with an average of 54 flights per day to Haikou and Sanya, and 34 flights to Harbin per day. China Southern Airlines has opened new routes to Guangzhou, Beijing Daxing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan to Changbai Mountain, Ningbo to Harbin and other routes to meet the hot demand for ice and snow tourism this year, arranging about 800 overtime flights on the "ice and snow routes", and at the same time investing nearly 200 wide-body aircraft per day on popular routes such as Beijing Daxing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Hangzhou to Sanya, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to Harbin and Changchun. Xiamen Airlines has increased its capacity investment in hot markets such as Northeast China and Hainan, and has opened and encrypted flights on routes such as Beijing Daxing-Mudanjiang, Beihai, Hangzhou-Changchun-Mudanjiang, and Xiamen-Qingdao-Yanji. Shandong Airlines has increased its investment in routes from Jinan to Shenyang, Yanji, Changbaishan, Fuzhou, Zhuhai and other places.
Recently, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries have announced the implementation of visa-free policies for Chinese tourists, which has stimulated people's enthusiasm for outbound travel. According to the "2024 Outbound Travel Demand Trend Outlook for Chinese Residents" released by Tongcheng Travel, outbound travel will accelerate its recovery in 2024 with the improvement of the supply side and the enhancement of consumer confidence, and the first peak of outbound travel this year will arrive during the Spring Festival. Echoing the enthusiasm of passengers for outbound travel, civil aviation will promote the accelerated recovery of the international market as one of the key tasks this year, and airlines will take the Spring Festival as an opportunity to focus on opening new and encrypted international flights.
Air China has increased its capacity in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and some cities in Southeast Asia, with flights on Beijing-Phuket and Wuhan-Macau routes increasing by 650% year-on-year. Hainan Airlines resumed the Beijing-Phuket route and encrypted international flights from Beijing to Bangkok, Haikou to Sydney, and Haikou to Melbourne. With the increasing popularity of ice and snow tourism, Juneyao Airlines will focus on international routes in Northeast Asia during the Spring Festival travel period, providing nearly 100 direct flights per week to Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Asahikawa and Jeju Island, a total of 6 destinations in Japan and South Korea.
Sichuan Airlines has piloted the operation of international through flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Kathmandu, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ho Chi Minh City to Chengdu Tianfu and Chengdu Tianfu to Cairo and Melbourne on a pilot basis, with about 90 flights per week, and will gradually add international through destinations such as Los Angeles, Istanbul and Rome in the future.
Improve service levels and transmit civil aviation temperatures.
The Spring Festival is a journey to happiness, and it is also a journey full of fireworks in the world. In order to let passengers who have been busy for a year feel the warmth of "spring" and the breath of "year", airlines will improve service levels as an important part of the Spring Festival transportation guarantee work.
In winter, low temperature, freezing rain and snow and low visibility weather occur frequently, and flight operations face many uncontrollable factors. On the occasion of the opening of the Spring Festival, a number of airlines have issued new rules for ticket refunds and changes, such as the Air China app to support all Air China ticket rebookings, provide multi-scenario refund services, and provide each user with a "two-hour refund for wrong purchase" and two "no reason refund coupons". CEA's new free refund and change regulations for flights other than 30 days before departure include factors such as aircraft type changes that make it impossible to travel, flight changes that cause flight changes, and flight stopovers that are delayed are included in the scope of free ticket refunds. China Southern Airlines has included factors such as aircraft type changes, flight stopovers, airport transfers, force majeure and other factors into the scope of free ticket refunds and changes.
It is worth mentioning that both China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines stipulate that if the price of the original ticket is reduced after the ticket is purchased, it is allowed to re-purchase the ticket at the same ticket purchase channel within 24 hours after the ticket is purchased, and the original ticket that meets certain conditions will be refunded free of charge. Experts believe that the new regulations on ticket refund and change issued by airlines this time reduce the cost of changing passengers' itineraries, and have a higher tolerance rate and tolerance for passenger bookings, which will better meet the needs of passengers for economic and convenient travel.
2024 is the Year of the Dragon, and the dragon is a spiritual totem that the Chinese nation is proud of. In order to create a strong New Year's flavor during the journey, airlines invariably make a fuss around the "dragon".
During the Spring Festival travel period, Air China will integrate the strong flavor of the Chinese New Year into all aspects of passengers' air travel. The Air China app launched the "Dragon Dance, Phoenix Dance for Nine Days" New Year Goods Festival, launched the "Sweeping Fortune Collection Card" on the Alipay Mini Program, and jointly provided 100 yuan airport pick-up and drop-off coupons with multiple platforms, bringing more "New Year's flavor" discounts. At some Air China check-in counters, lounges and other areas, passengers have the opportunity to experience traditional Chinese folk culture such as calligraphy and the Lantern Festival. In the cabin, passengers have the opportunity to taste Chinese New Year-themed dumplings, dumplings and Air China's exclusive Chinese pastries, accompanied by a variety of Spring Festival-themed in-flight service items. The in-flight entertainment program will simultaneously launch exciting content with the theme of "New Year's Flavor Tracking".
Xiamen Airlines will prepare limited meals for passengers such as natto rice cakes and themed biscuits for the Year of the Dragon, and will also hold a variety of special activities such as "Year of the Dragon" and New Year Garden Parades in the terminals and lounges of Xiamen, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Beijing, Tianjin, Changsha, Quanzhou, Chongqing and Shanghai, and carry out New Year-themed flights.
Photo courtesy of Shandong Airlines) Focusing on the theme of "Honest Mountain Aviation, Happy and Auspicious Year", Shandong Airlines launched a special boarding pass for the Spring Festival, and launched an online and offline interactive activity of "Jade Dragon Lunar New Year, Vientiane Update" for passengers. Passengers who apply for air tickets at the ticket office directly under Shandong Airlines can receive customized Chinese New Year lucky bags and other Spring Festival souvenirs from Shandong Airlines; The check-in counters in Jinan, Qingdao and Yantai will randomly present souvenirs such as keychains and bookmarks of the Analects to passengers; Organize passengers to participate in interesting interactions at the boarding gate, such as idiom solitaire, Chinese New Year greetings, etc.; The lounge provides passengers with clothing storage and hot food services, and provides special meals for the Spring Festival, such as "Shanhang Cloud Dumplings" and "Shanhang Color Noodles", and launches experience activities such as tea art, flower arrangement, incense throwing pots, intangible cultural heritage rubbing, and guessing lantern riddles. In the cabin, passengers will have the opportunity to participate in special interactive games such as "Encyclopedia Q&A", "Blessing on Board" and "Lantern Festival Riddle Guessing" on Spring Festival-themed flights.
Busy Spring Festival, mobile China. Passengers on the road to reunion are looking forward to the spring breeze, and airlines that have experienced the cold winter are also eager for a hot "good start" to set the tone for the annual performance to rise.