Chinese airline companies have decided to expand their flight capacity by adding more than 2,500 passenger flights to meet the surging demand for outbound travels during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush starting from Friday.

The 40-day travel rush, also known as "Chunyun,", starts on Friday and ends on March 5, with the Chinese New Year falling on February 10 this year.
The surge in travel bookings, which has seen a nearly seven-fold increase year-on-year in outbound flight ticket searches between February 8 and 17, has prompted airlines to increase flights.
The Belt and Road partner countries have emerged as popular destinations, driving the need for additional flights.
"Air China has newly opened a route of direct flight from Beijing to Türkiye's Istanbul and is preparing to open new routes to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. China Eastern Airlines has successively opened new routes to Auckland, Amsterdam, Budapest, Istanbul among other destinations," said Liu Ting, researcher with the Big Data Research Institute of Qunar, a leading Chinese online travel booking platform.
The platform has also witnessed a substantial increase in bookings for not only western European countries but also Nordic countries.
"As shown by the outbound flight ticket bookings for the Spring Festival holiday season in 2024, Europe is a hot destination. Compared with the National Day holiday last year, the popularity of Nordic countries has significantly risen in ranking. Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland are all among the Top 30 popular destinations, with the booking volume growing by more than 40 percent year-on-year," Liu said.