PASSENGER traffic during China’s annual Spring Festival travel rush will likely see a massive rally this year, the Ministry of Transport said. The travel rush, usually a period of high transportation demand as people return home for family reunions, will last from Jan. 26 to March 5 this year. According to a plan on ensuring transportation in this period issued by the ministry and relevant authorities Friday, cross-regional passenger flow and driving trips will reach a record high, which might bring more pressure to transportation and logistics during the period. The ministry will strengthen passenger flow monitoring, hustle up transport forces in areas including railway, highway, waterway, civil aviation, express delivery, and urban passenger transport, and strengthen dynamic monitoring, early warning, and research on the impact of various emergencies on the operation of the transportation system to ensure passenger and cargo transport. A special work team has been established by the ministry along with various departments to secure transport and work safety during the travel rush. Meanwhile, train tickets for the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush went on sale Friday. The China State Railway Group Co. Ltd. noted that this year’s peak season, the first after the COVID-19 pandemic, will see high travel demands among tourists, migrant workers and students. To boost transportation capacity during this period, 12,700 trains will be arranged per day leading up to the festival Feb. 10, and 12,800 trains thereafter. The railway network will be able to handle 14.4% more passengers before the festival and 12.6% more after the festival compared to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. Multiple new high-speed rails put into operation last year will also help meet the increasing travel needs, the railway operator noted, pledging to ensure a safe and orderly travel rush with better travel experience. Meanwhile, an estimated 80 million passenger trips, a record high, are likely to be handled by China’s civil aviation sector during this year’s travel rush, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). This figure represents a 44.9% surge compared with the same period of 2023 and is an increase of 9.8% from the level recorded during the Spring Festival travel rush in 2019. To handle the spike in air travel passenger levels, the country’s airlines have planned to add over 2,500 flights during the 40-day period, taking into consideration the likely demand for trips to popular destinations in Southeast Asia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and other neighboring regions, said Liang Nan, a CAAC official. According to a research made by online travel agency Tongcheng, ice-and-snow is the most popular theme for domestic travel, with Harbin, capital of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, the most popular destination for the 2024 Spring Festival holiday. A poll by the China Tourism Academy showed that more than 66% of the potential tourists would like to enjoy ice-and-snow travel in the 2023-2024 winter season, with the number of people embarking on ice-and-snow tours this winter expected to grow by 25% to 30% year-on-year to exceed 400 million. (Xinhua) | 