Railways, airlines busy as Spring Festival travel rush rebounds
The waiting hall of Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station is full of passengers during the just-concluded Spring Festival travel rush.
About 28.46 million trips were made from or to Shanghai during this year's chunyun, the Spring Festival travel rush, which ran between January 7 and February 15, a year-on-year increase of 34 percent from last year and 63 percent of the same period in 2019, according to the city's transportation authorities.
Among those, 19.48 million were by rail, 8.19 million by air and 778,4000 by road.
The railway passenger flow increased by 47.1 compared with last year, and it recovered to about 77.9 percent of the 2019 travel rush, according to the railway operator, China Railway Shanghai Group.
Also, the recovery of passenger flow after the holiday is better than that before due to the increase in travel demand among those returning to work and study.
This year's chunyun was the first travel peak following China's downgrading of COVID-19 pandemic control measures on January 8.
An air hostess serves a passenger on a domestic flight.
Airline demand also witnessed a dramatic surge.
According to the Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines, the number of domestic flights operated during the 40 days reached 91,000, a year-on-year increase of 16.3 percent, and 96.4 percent of the same period in 2019.
It operated more than 28,000 flights at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport during chunyun this year, serving more than 3.22 million passengers. In addition, the company also served more than 4,900 flights of other Chinese and foreign airlines.
A pet dog waits to board a flight.
