An airplane from China United Airlines at the Beijing Daxing International Airport Photo: Courtesy of China United Airlines

Airplanes from China United Airlines at the Beijing Daxing International Airport Photo: Courtesy of China United Airlines

  
The new airport in Beijing will welcome its first travelling peak during the coming annual Spring Festival rush starting from Friday.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said on Thursday that the airport, which started operation in late September last year, will see 1.9 million travelers during the 40-day festival rush, and the daily number of flights could hit 312, up 15 percent from normal. 

During the Spring Festival, China Eastern Airlines and China United Airlines will open 92 routes, with 6,600 flights, reaching cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Sanya, as well as Japan's Fukuoka and Da Nang in Vietnam.

China Eastern Airlines and China United have the main transportation capacity of Beijing Daxing International Airport, with a share of 53.6 percent in the airport. 

China United said it will deploy four new aircraft during the peak season, making the fleet size reach 53. China Eastern said that it will add 364 flights from Daxing airport to cities such as Chengdu, Wenzhou and, Guangzhou.

Airplanes from China Eastern Airlines at the Beijing Daxing International Airport Photo: Courtesy of China Eastern Airlines

 
In total, China Eastern, which operates in two airports including the Beijing Capital International Airport, plans to fly 118,900 flights, up 6.11 percent from 2019, including 6,716 new flights.

China Southern Airlines plans to add 650 flights in the two airports in Beijing, up 235 percent from the previous year, and 506 new flights will be for Beijing Daxing International Airport.

China Southern said it expects to fly more than 82,000 flights during the 40-day traveling peak and the number of passengers could hit 13.8 million, up 8.9 percent from the previous year. 

The check-in counter of China Southern Airlines in Beijing Daxing International Airport Photo: Tu Lei/GT

 

Hu Haiqing, an official from the Beijing branch of China Southern Airlines told the Global Times that the carrier’s flight on-time performance at Beijing Capital International Airport has been the top one from 2009 till now, and last year the flight on-time performance was 84.33 percent, the best in the past 10 years. The flight on-time performance in Daxing airport is 95.68 percent. 

Another giant airline, Air China, said it will have 431 aircraft operating during the travel season, and it plans to run more domestic flights, so that domestic flights account for 54 percent of its total flights.

CAAC predicted that travelers flying via airplanes may hit a record, and the number could hit 79 million across the nation, up 8.4 percent from the previous year.

Beijing Capital International Airport said it expects to see 10.99 million passengers in and out of the airport during the period.