Photo: Courtesy of Beijing Capital International Airport

China's civil aviation sector is gearing up for a seven-day National Day holidays travel rush starting on Thursday. Airports across the country are bracing for surging passenger flows, with demand for international routes seeing particularly robust growth.

Beijing Capital International Airport is projected to handle more than 1.66 million passenger trips during the holiday, averaging 237,000 per day. It plans to operate 9,448 flights, or roughly 1,350 daily. Travel peaks will fall on October 1 and October 7, with each day seeing more than 245,000 passenger trips, the airport told the Global Times on Monday. 

Top domestic destinations include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing and Guiyang. Popular international travel picks are Bangkok, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City and Bali, the airport said. 

China's civil aviation industry is expected to transport 31.19 million passenger trips between September 25 and October 7, an average of 2.4 million daily, a 3.6 percent year-on-year increase.

Demand for international trips and circular tours is on the rise, and the civil aviation passenger volume is expected to hit a new record for the same period in history, according to Ma Bing, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

In the international market, bookings for international air tickets during the holidays are up 22.5 percent year-on-year. Neighboring countries remain popular tourist destinations. Flight volumes to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Laos have increased by 20 percent, while flights on long-haul international routes to the UK, Germany, Spain and other destinations have seen 15 percent growth, according to Ma. 

Beijing Daxing International Airport, which just celebrated its seventh anniversary, is expected to handle 1.79 million passenger trips and 11,040 flights during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. Traffic is expected to peak on October 1, with approximately 180,000 passenger trips and 1,150 flights, the airport told the Global Times.  

The airport said it continues to expand its domestic and international network. It now has 72 airlines serving 210 destinations worldwide. 

Sunday, travel platform Qunar said that for outbound travel, long-haul intercontinental destinations such as London and Los Angeles made it to the Top 10 popular cities list during the holidays. 

Overseas airlines are advancing their long-term development strategies in the Chinese market by continuously expanding their China route networks, deepening digital cooperation and strengthening collaboration with tourism partners.

During holidays from September 26 to October 11, 2026, Malaysia Airlines expects to carry over 52,000 passengers on its China-bound flights, up 21 percent year-on-year, according to the information the company shared with the Global Times. 

Malaysia Airlines' route network in China now covers nine gateway cities. In the first half of 2026, Malaysia Airlines carried more than 600,000 passengers on its China services, representing a 27 percent year-on-year increase, with an average load factor of 84 percent. 

China saw a total of 6.71 million border crossings during the three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holidays that concluded on Sunday, up 16.8 percent year-on-year, according to the National Immigration Administration. Foreign nationals accounted for 728,000 inbound and outbound trips, up 37.7 percent year-on-year, as inbound tourism surged, the data showed.