City airports handle 2 million travelers
A large number of travelers at Pudong airport on Thursday.
Shanghai’s Hongqiao and Pudong airports received a record number of domestic flights and travelers during the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.
Over 2 million domestic travelers departed or arrived at the airports between September 30 and October 7, a 17 percent increase on last year, the Shanghai Airport Authority said on Thursday.
The number of domestic flights at the two airports increased by 22 percent year on year with nearly 14,000 takeoffs and landings during the holiday.
“An increasing number of tourists are attracted to Shanghai with new attractions such as the extended Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall,” an official at Hongqiao airport said.
“Meanwhile, more local tourists are attracted to travel domestically by multiple ‘fly-freely’ packages released by almost all local carriers ahead of the holiday,” he added.
While there was a sharp decrease in the number of international flights, Pudong saw a higher increase in domestic flights and travelers during the eight-day holiday.
The airport handled over 7,700 domestic flights, a 37 percent increase on last year. Over a million domestic passengers arrived or left the city through the airport, up by more than a third compared with 2019, the airport authority said.
Holiday travelers at Hongqiao airport.
Peak days
The Pudong airport handled 138,500 passengers on the peak day of October 4 with a total of 956 takeoffs and landings. Hongqiao airport received nearly 130,000 travelers on October 1, the National Day and the festival, with 785 flights.
Flights at both airports remained more punctual than those at most other domestic airports. The average on-time rate during the holiday was 96 percent at Hongqiao and 94.3 percent at Pudong airport.
Since the novel coronavirus outbreak, which saw a sharp fall in the number of travelers, both airports along with the airlines optimized the domestic routes network to help get the business back on track, said Shi Xinyan, an official with the airport authority.
The short-term focus of both airports has shifted to the domestic market. The time slots of international flights were reallocated to popular domestic routes ahead of the holiday to tap the rising demand for domestic travel, Shi said.
Additional business flights, for instance, between Shanghai and Beijing as well as Shanghai and Guangdong, opened at Hongqiao. More Shanghai-Beijing flights land at Daxing, the new mega airport in the capital.
During the holiday, more flights flew to northwest and southwest China as well as Hainan Island. New popular destinations included Yan’an in northwest Shaanxi Province, Enshi in central Hubei, Yulin in the south Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Shihezi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Local carriers have been operating more frequent flights to these destinations.
A crowded T2 terminal at Hongqiao airport during the holiday.
Airlines also replaced narrow-body airliners with wide-body jets for popular domestic routes. Over 30 percent of the airliners operating domestic flights were double-aisle aircraft during the holiday, a 5 percent increase on last year.
“The number of flights and travelers has fully recovered from the impact of COVID-19 since the third quarter,” Shi said.
To ensure safety during the pandemic, the airport authority has stipulated that all those entering terminals must wear masks and have their temperature checked. Trolleys are sterilized with ultraviolet light and washed with high pressure water cannons. Disinfection wipes and first-aid material is available at departure halls.
The airport authority expected the number of passenger flights and travelers at both airports to remain high on Friday.
Returning travelers have also brought prosperity back to the shops and eateries at terminal buildings at both airports. Business at Hongqiao airport was 7 percent higher during the holiday than in 2019, while at Pudong it was at the same level as last year.
Meanwhile, cargo transport also increased sharply at the two airports. They handled a total of 1,419 cargo flights during the holiday, more than double that of 2019.
Between January and September, the airports received a total of 50,000 cargo flights with some 280 tons of freight, including COVID19 prevention supplies, accounting for nearly half of the nation’s total.
A worker disinfects trolleys at Hongqiao airport.
A shop selling Shanghai delicacies at Pudong airport.
An Air China cargo plane loads freight at Pudong airport during the holiday.
