Flights within China to ‘fully recover’ next month as domestic travel demand surges

Demand for flights within China surging.

After grounding almost all Chinese flights back in February due to the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s domestic aviation industry is expected to “fully recover” next month.

For the month of August, domestic travel in China reached 86% compared to 2019 levels. Ticket bookings in the second week of August reached 98%.

Air China, China Eastern and China Southern flew a total of 22 million passengers domestically last month.

The news comes as US-based airlines are preparing mass layoffs in October when the $2.2 trillion CARES Act ends.

American Airlines said it will cut 19,000 jobs on October 1.

Speaking on China’s recovery, Olivier Ponti at ForwardKeys said: “This is a highly significant moment because it is the first time, since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak, that a major segment of the aviation market anywhere in the world has returned to pre-pandemic levels.”

According to Trip.com data, some Chinese tourist attractions are receiving almost three times the number of visitors than in the last quarter.

Hotels too are returning to normal levels with occupancy rates in Shanghai reaching 65.8% in the middle of August.

Although Chinese domestic travel demand seems to have recovered, international flights are not expected to fully recover for many years.