China's civil aviation market is reviving vigorously as the consequence of the booming summer tourism, with domestic airlines blazing new routes to popular scenic spots and international airlines increasing flight frequency to China.

According to Umetrip, a major aviation service platform in China, domestic airlines have carried out over 7,000 inbound and outbound flights as of July, with tourists throughput surpassing 123,000 on July 9, setting an annual record high.
According to Spring Airlines, a pioneer in China's private airline industry, its domestic route load factor, a measure of the utilization rate, exceeded 90 percent in the first six months of this year, while the number of international flights has recovered to almost 50 percent to pre-COVID levels.
"During the COVID-19 epidemic, we introduced more than 20 new planes. So, when the holiday tourism market picked up in the post-COVID era, these new planes came in handy. We opened more new routes, such as routes to popular summer tourism destination and winter skiing resorts in Xinjiang. These new routes lead to 10 destinations in Xinjiang, including Turpan, Aksu and Altay regions," said Zhang Wuan, vice president of Spring Airlines.
Zhang said the tourism industry's recovery has been instrumental to Spring Airlines, resulting in growth in the company's benefits during the first six months of this year.
"Spring Airlines is projecting an operating profit of 650 million yuan (about 90.81 million U.S. dollars) to 850 million yuan for the first half of 2023, which is close to the company's historical record," said Zhang.
China has also seen resumption of several international airlines, including Scoot, the low-cost airline under the Singapore Airlines.
In the first half of this year, the number of passengers traveling by Scoot from China to Singapore has risen notably, with an increase from 2,500 per week in January to over 18,000 per week in July, a 7-fold increase in just a few months.
"I think this July, which is the peak summer travel period, we are quite confident that the load factor will continue improve further. Like the pre-COVID period, we set [flight routes to] about 19 cities in China, and now we have recovered to 17 cities in total, and also increasing the [flight] frequency to all these 17 cities," said Lee Yong Sin, Shanghai-based vice president of sales of Scoot.
Meanwhile, the resumption of China's 15-day visa-free policy for visitors from Singapore and Brunei from July 26 also marks a positive move that has instilled greater confidence among tourism industry practitioners worldwide.
"China, I think, is one of the largest outbound traveler [source] to the rest of the world, and I think many, many countries are waiting for the reopening of China, so I think it's a lot about opportunity. For airlines especially operating in China, we can continue to recover, to ramp up our capacity in China, so that we can meet the growing travel demand of the Chinese passengers post-pandemic," said Lee.