Chinese Spring Festival civil aviation passenger volume hit a record high! Post holiday airfare prices plummet significantly

With the end of the Spring Festival holiday and the gradual decline of the peak return passenger flow, domestic and international airline ticket prices have experienced a "big drop", with a general decrease of 10% -60%. The off peak travel window period has officially opened, providing cost-effective travel options for travelers with flexible schedules. ​

During the 2026 Spring Festival holiday (February 15-23), which lasted for a total of 9 days, China's civil aviation industry delivered an impressive performance, with transportation data showing a positive trend and passenger travel demand fully unleashed. According to official data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, during the 9-day holiday, the country's civil aviation transported a total of 22.5 million passengers, guaranteed 171000 flights, and transported 2.45 million passengers and 18956 flights per day, an increase of 7.7% and 4.4% respectively compared to the same period of the Spring Festival travel rush in 2025 (January 27th to February 4th, 2025, a total of 9 days). The normal flight rate reached 95.8%, an increase of 0.6 percentage points compared to the same period last year, achieving a good trend of "quantity stability and quality improvement". ​

Among them, February 23rd (the seventh day of the first lunar month), as the peak day for returning during the Spring Festival holiday, saw a peak in civil aviation transportation, with 2.668 million passengers transported on that day, an increase of 7.6% compared to the same period of the 2025 Spring Festival travel rush on the seventh day of the first lunar month. It successfully set a new historical high for daily passenger transportation in civil aviation and became the most eye-catching breakthrough point in the civil aviation market during this Spring Festival. From the perspective of travel structure, domestic travel is still mainstream, with Guangzhou Baiyun, Shanghai Pudong, Shenzhen Bao'an, Beijing Capital and other top ten airports becoming the core carriers of passenger throughput. Shanghai Hongqiao Beijing Capital, Shenzhen Bao'an Shanghai Hongqiao and other routes have entered the top 10 popular flight segments; International travel remains popular, with popular airports for entry and exit concentrated in hubs such as Pudong, Baiyun, and the capital. Surrounding countries such as Thailand, South Korea, and Malaysia have become popular destinations for outbound travel, and the number of long-distance airline passengers has also increased significantly. ​

It is worth noting that during the Spring Festival, the civil aviation market showed a trend of "both quantity and price rising". According to flight management data, the average ticket price for economy class during the Spring Festival reached 1026.9 yuan, an increase of 6.6% compared to the Spring Festival in 2025 and 7.6% compared to the Spring Festival in 2019. On the seventh day of the first lunar month, ticket prices reached their peak during the holiday, and some popular return routes sold out their economy class, leaving only business class available, indicating the high popularity of travel. In addition, a number of characteristic towns "went out of the circle" by virtue of the advantages of folk intangible cultural heritage, and the passenger volume of Mount Wuyi City, Xingtai City and other destinations increased significantly year on year, driving the passenger volume of surrounding small airports to rise significantly.