(Yicai) Aug. 4 -- China's civil aviation sector saw a slight uptick in July amid the summer travel rush, but ticket prices are still under pressure, with the average economy fare tumbling 7.5 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest data.

The number of passengers that flew on domestic routes in July climbed 3 percent from a year earlier to 60.3 million, according to statistics from state-backed flight information provider Air Travel Navigator. While passenger numbers on international routes surged 10 percent to 7.7 million.

Ticket sales to tourist hotspots saw much faster growth. Bookings to popular cities such as Xining in western Qinghai province as well as Lijiang and Dali in southwestern Yunnan province jumped more than 13 percent year on year, while bookings to several cities in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region surged by over 10 percent, Zhao Nan, general manager of the industry development department at Air Travel Navigator, told Yicai.

The summer travel boom this year was not as strong as expected, a marketing executive at an airline said. “The first part of July was not bad, but after the middle of the month passenger loads began to decline and it became difficult to raise prices.”

The average price of an economy class ticket on a domestic route slumped 7.5 percent in July from a year earlier to CNY840 (USD117), including fuel surcharges, according to data from flight tracking platform Flight Manager. This is also a 5 percent drop from the same period in 2019, the year before the pandemic.

Of the 20 most popular domestic routes, only the Hangzhou-Shenzhen route saw fares go up, while prices on the rest declined to various degrees. Fares on 11 of these, including the Chongqing to Beijing route, plunged by more than 10 percent from a year ago.

The July-August summer travel season is usually one of the most profitable times of the year for airlines, second only to the Chinese New Year travel rush. It is also a key time for airlines to add international flights. However, this year, international flight volumes are only back to 89.1 percent of 2019 levels, according to the latest statistics from Flight Manager.

The pattern of international routes flown by Chinese airlines has changed significantly since before the pandemic, industry insiders told Yicai. Flights to and from Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East now account for over 70 percent of international flights, while traditional long-haul routes to Europe and the United States, remain well below pre-pandemic levels due to reciprocal air rights restrictions.

In terms of the most popular international destinations, the number of flights to Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan and Laos in July exceeded the same period in 2019, according to Flight Manager. However, flights to Thailand are only at 54.6 percent of 2019 levels, while those to Cambodia and the Philippines are still less than 50 percent, and flights to North America are under 30 percent of what they were before the pandemic.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor