Photo: Courtesy of China Southern Airlines
The number of passengers carried by Chinese airlines during this year’s Spring Festival travel rush was less than half the level of two years ago, reduced by the global pandemic.
Chinese airlines carried 35.39 million passengers in the 40-day travel rush, which ended on Monday, down 7.78 percent from 2020 — and also down by more than 50 percent from 2019, data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) showed on Monday.
CAAC said that the average passenger load factor during that period increased by 4.59 percentage points compared with the same period in 2020, but it was down by 18.77 percentage points compared with the same period in 2019.
The CAAC said the number of passenger…