Shanghai Airports Set Passenger Traffic Records Over Chinese New Year
(Yicai) Feb. 5 — Shanghai’s airport passenger traffic set new all-time highs over three straight days during the eight-day Chinese New Year holiday thanks to a surge in both inbound and outbound travelers.
Passenger throughput at the city’s two main airports reached 412,000 on Feb. 3, with 264,000 at Pudong International Airport and the rest at Hongqiao International Airport, according to the Shanghai Airport Authority, which operates the two hubs. It topped 398,000 on Feb. 1 and 404,000 on Feb. 2.
With the high point of passenger returns during the 40-day Chinese New Year travel period still to come, passenger traffic at the airports is expected to top these new records. The annual travel rush that takes place in China around the Chinese New Year is known as ‘chunyun’ in Chinese and is the world’s largest annual human migration.
Shanghai is a popular destination for domestic tourists, with the number heading to the city in the lunar new year break surging nearly three-fold from a year earlier, according to Alibaba-backed online travel agency Fliggy.
Following recent changes in China’s visa-free entry policy, foreign visitor numbers to Shanghai soared more than 60 percent from Jan. 28 to 29 from a year ago, data from travel giant Ctrip showed. They mainly came from South Korea, Japan, Singapore, the United States, and Malaysia.
Demand for foreign trips among Shanghai residents is also strong. According to statistics from Qunar, Shanghai led the country for outbound air ticket purchases for the Chinese New Year holiday, jumping 57 percent from last year.
Around 60 percent of Shanghai residents going abroad were headed to Japan, Thailand, Singapore, and South Korea, per the Shanghai General Station of Immigration Inspection.
Thanks to the faster pace of recovery in domestic and international routes last year, Pudong Airport was China’s busiest for the first time in four years, with throughput of 76.79 million passengers, according to the Shanghai Airport Authority. Guangzhou’s Baiyun International Airport ranked second with 76.37 million.
Pudong Airport is also growing, with the fourth phase of its expansion project entering a new construction stage last November. The airport’s annual passenger capacity will likely reach 130 million by 2030.
Written by Yicai Global
