Airlines set passenger record over holiday
Updated: 2007-10-08 13:55
Chinese airlines carried a record number of people on a single day over the just ended week-long National Day holiday -- more than half a million passengers, the regulator said on Monday.
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Total passenger numbers during the period -- one of China's three "golden week" holidays -- climbed a quarter on the year-earlier period to 3.75 million people, though the number of flights operated rose just 6 percent, it said.
Yet flights departed fuller than last year, with 72 percent of seats filled as opposed to 65 percent the year before, the watchdog added.
Not only were flights to traditional tourist hot spots like Beijing, Shanghai and the southern resort island of Hainan popular, but secondary cities such as Yinchuan in the poor western region of Ningxia also saw large increases, it said.
China, hungrily eyed as a potentially vast market by Boeing Co and EADS-owned Airbus, has been adding large numbers of new aircraft to serve the booming economy and millions of newly affluent people who no longer want to take the train.
Chinese airlines are also attracting the attention of overseas investors, like Singapore Airlines and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways who hope to grab a slice of the growing pie.
Cathay has invested in Air China while Singapore Airlines and government-run Temasek Holdings this year proposed buying a combined 24 percent of China Eastern for $918 million.
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