China expanded its international flight services on Sunday as the civil aviation sector switched to its winter-spring schedule, adding routes and increasing frequencies amid rising demand for cross-border travel.
The new schedule, which runs from Oct 25 to March 27, includes 16,654 international passenger flights a week connecting China with 84 countries, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Flight frequencies to Central Asia, South Asia, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America have increased from a year earlier. Services between China and 17 countries, including Kazakhstan, India, Canada and Belgium, have risen by more than 40 percent.
Chinese and foreign airlines also plan to launch scheduled passenger services to Iceland, Madagascar and Jordan, adding eight international destinations to China's aviation network.
The expansion comes amid growing demand for inbound tourism. Passenger flights between China and 15 major inbound tourism markets, including Singapore and Malaysia, have increased by 14.4 percent year-on-year, the aviation regulator said.
Booking data also pointed to stronger demand. According to Umetrip, an aviation travel platform, scheduled outbound flights for the new season have increased by more than 12 percent year-on-year, while inbound flights have risen by about 13 percent.
As of Wednesday, bookings for outbound and inbound flights scheduled between Oct 25 and Nov 30 had reached about 3.2 million and 3.08 million, respectively, both up approximately 10 percent from a year earlier.
Beijing Capital International Airport is among the major hubs expanding its international services.
"Under the new schedule, the airport will handle an average of 252 international and regional passenger flights a day, 39 more than a year earlier," said He Yawei, resource management supervisor at the airport's operations control center.
The airport expects to handle approximately 1,300 flight movements a day during the new season, up 57 from the previous year.
Air China, the national carrier, is introducing a service from Beijing to Reykjavik in Iceland via Copenhagen, as well as routes from Beijing to Bali in Indonesia and Chengdu to Hanoi in Vietnam. It is also increasing frequencies on more than 20 international routes, including services to Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland in the Southern Hemisphere.
China Southern Airlines is adding services from Guangzhou to Jeju Island in South Korea and Langkawi in Malaysia, while increasing flights to Australia and New Zealand during the Southern Hemisphere's summer travel season.
Beijing Daxing International Airport plans to service 44 international and regional destinations, with approximately 105 international and regional flight movements a day.
Domestic airlines are also expanding connections to winter tourism destinations and smaller cities.
The aviation regulator said 34 airlines plan to introduce 288 domestic routes, many linking cities in western and northeastern China with major economic centers.
New measures to improve the allocation of domestic aviation resources also took effect with the seasonal schedule change, all aimed at strengthening the domestic route network and promoting efficient competition among airlines.
Umetrip data showed that bookings to Yanji in Jilin province for the opening period have surged by more than 90 percent year-on-year, while those to Altay in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have risen by about 30 percent.
Across the industry, 216 Chinese and foreign airlines plan to operate approximately 116,000 passenger and cargo flights a week during the new season, the aviation regulator said.
China adjusts airline schedules twice a year, in late March and late October, allowing carriers to modify routes, flight frequencies and departure times in response to seasonal demand and operating conditions.
