Passengers for flight HU703 to Hong Kong check in at Haikou Meilan International Airport in South China’s Hainan Province on November 16, 2022. The flight marks the official resumption of regular international and regional routes for the airport amid the pandemic. Photo: cnsphotos

More passengers are expected to use public transport with searches for flights and railway tickets surging, after China has moved to significantly loosen anti-COVID restrictions.

The immediate search volume for flight tickets on online travel agency platforms soared and the search for air tickets for the eve of the Spring Festival reaching its highest point in three years.

The number of domestic flights has risen for five consecutive days. On Thursday, the number of domestic passenger flights is expected to reach 4,736, an increase of 11 percent compared with Wednesday, latest data from information provider VariFlight showed on Thursday.

China Railway, the national railway operator, said Thursday that it will gradually resume train operations to fully meet passenger travel needs after it cancelled previous requirement for 48-hour negative nucleic acid result and health code for travel by train. It will pay close attention to adjustments to epidemic prevention and control policies across the country and use big data to accurately analyze passenger flows.

China Railway operated 4,468 passenger trains on Wednesday, carrying 2.64 million passengers. The number of passenger trains is expected to increase to 4,609 on Thursday, as more passengers hit the road.

Surging search volume for flight and rail tickets came after the government released on Wednesday a circular, announcing 10 prevention and control measures including that people will no longer be required to provide negative nucleic acid test results and undergo health code checks to access public venues or travel to other regions outside designated setting which include nursing homes, medical institutions, primary and secondary schools.

Demand for flight tickets to Beijing soared after the capital city issued optimized COVID-19 response on Wednesday night.

On Thursday, the number of air tickets for Beijing-bound flights were limited, and the prices of air tickets were up. There were still a small number of discounted tickets from Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province to Beijing, but they were still priced at more than 1,000 yuan ($143.4), according to VariFlight.

The purchase of railway tickets to Beijing will no longer be subject to restrictions, while the Beijing Capital International Airport announced that it will no longer check health codes for travelers entering the airport.

Travelers entering Beijing are no longer required to present a negative COVID-19 test result or a green health code. The previous requirement of “three COVID tests within three days after arrival” has been removed, according to officials in Beijing.

Global Times