Flights between China and the United States will double, destinations for outbound group tours will increase, and air travel weekly reports show a significant year-on-year increase in summer ticket orders for China's flights

No.1 Summer air ticket orders saw a significant year-on-year increase

According to the Flight Manager App data, as of last week, domestic ticket orders for the summer of 2023 increased by 47% year-on-year compared to the summer of 2022, and by 96% year-on-year compared to the summer of 2019; The average price of domestic air tickets is 945 yuan, an increase of 36% year-on-year in 2022 and 8% year-on-year in 2019.

Among them, the average domestic air ticket price for the first half of the summer in 2023 is 940 yuan; The top 10 most popular destinations in China are Shenzhen, Chengdu, Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Shanghai, Changsha, and Kunming.

NO.2 Increase in destinations for outbound group tours

Since February 2023, when the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the first and second batch of outbound team tour countries, on August 10th, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued another notice announcing the expansion of the scale of outbound team business in various countries. Since then, the number of countries for outbound and group tours has expanded from 60 to 138.

On the morning of August 10th, after the announcement from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ctrip data showed that the instantaneous search for outbound travel products increased by more than 20 times, with the National Day departure period receiving the most attention, and the popularity of group products in countries such as Japan and Australia and New Zealand skyrocketing.

According to data from Tongcheng Travel, after the news was released, the number of visa inquiries on the platform has increased nearly three times compared to the same period the day before yesterday, and the number of outbound travel product inquiries to relevant countries has significantly increased. Among the newly opened countries for outbound tourism, Türkiye, Australia and Japan are the most concerned by users. Among them, Türkiye's tourism consulting volume has increased more than 10 times.

According to the data of Qunar, in the third batch of outbound group tour list, there are direct flights from 20 destinations such as Chinese Mainland, Japan, South Korea and the United States. Among them, the direct destinations in Asia are Pakistan, South Korea, Qatar, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Japan, Türkiye and Israel; Direct destinations in Africa are Algeria and Ethiopia; Direct destinations in Europe are Ireland, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom; The direct destination for North America is the United States; The direct destination for Oceania is Australia.

Xie Xiaoqing, a senior researcher at Ctrip Research Institute, believes that the expansion of the scale of group tourism countries will directly promote tourism enterprises to accelerate product research and development and layout, further enrich consumer travel choices, and thus accelerate the recovery of supply and demand. After the increase of outbound group tour destinations, the upcoming National Day Golden Week will become a key observation period for market performance.

NO.3 China US flights will double

On August 10th local time, the US Department of Transportation issued the latest notice approving Chinese airlines to further increase direct flights between China and the United States.

According to the latest directive, starting from September 1st, Chinese airlines are allowed to operate 18 direct round-trip flights between China and the United States per week, and starting from October 29th, Chinese airlines are allowed to operate 24 direct round-trip flights between China and the United States per week.

At present, four Chinese airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Xiamen Airlines, operate 12 pairs of direct passenger flights between China and the United States per week. This means that starting from October 29th, the number of direct flights between China and the United States per week operated by Chinese airlines can double.

The reporter learned that Air China and China Eastern Airlines have taken the lead in applying for new Sino US flights, with Air China applying for one new weekly flight from Beijing to Los Angeles and China Eastern Airlines applying for one new weekly flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles.

Due to the fact that the number of flights between Chinese airlines and American airlines is basically equal, this also indicates that the number of passenger flights between China and the United States operated by American airlines will also increase. Among them, United Airlines has announced that starting from October 1st, it will increase the number of flights from San Francisco to Shanghai to one per day, and starting from November 1st, it will increase the number of flights from San Francisco to Beijing to one per day.

The recovery of flights between China and the United States has been relatively slow. Prior to the epidemic, there were over 300 direct flights per week between China and the United States, and the current level of recovery is still less than one tenth of that before the epidemic.

On June 18, during the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China, China and the United States agreed to encourage the expansion of cultural and educational exchanges between the two countries, actively discuss the increase of passenger flights between China and the United States, welcome more students, scholars, and business people to visit each other's countries, and provide support and facilities for this purpose.

At the same time, the third batch of outbound team tour countries released by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism last week included the United States, which also provided policy support for the increase of trips between China and the United States.

With the increase of flights, personnel exchanges between the two countries will further resume, and ticket prices are expected to be adjusted downwards.