Beijing-Shanghai (PEK-SHA) is the busiest domestic airline route in China this month, with a total of 755,061 scheduled seats between the two airports. This flight route sees a 24% increase month-on-month, and an 8% increase when compared to March 2019. The second largest domestic route is Guangzhou-Shanghai (CAN-SHA) with 649,607 scheduled seats, an increase of 30% compared to last month, and a 23% compared to pre-pandemic levels in March 2019.
Every month we track China’s travel recovery, here are March’s key highlights:
- China’s three busiest airports this month are:
- Guangzhou (CAN) remains the largest airport in China for domestic capacity, with 3.3 million seats which is 20% higher compared to March 2019 levels.
- Shenzhen (SZX) is the second largest airport for domestic capacity with 2.9 million seats which is 22% higher than March 2019 levels.
- Beijing Capital Airport (PEK) is the third largest airport for domestic capacity with 2.8 million seats and remains behind March 2019 levels (-24%).
- China’s top three airlines are all operating more domestic seat capacity compared to February 2019 levels:
- China Southern: 11,990,877 seats +24%
- China Eastern: 10,515,968 seats +19%
- Air China: 7,987,526 seats +34%
- International airline capacity in China continues to grow and has risen to almost 3% of the total market; airlines added more than 730k international seats in March compared to last month.
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