(Yicai) May 7 -- China’s domestic air traffic experienced an unusual decline over the Labor Day holiday as a result of higher jet fuel costs, spring break travel, and stiffer competition from high-speed rail services.

An average of 2.1 million air passenger journeys were made in China each day between May 1 and 5, a 5.7 percent fall from a year earlier, according to transport ministry data. The corresponding figures for rail and road were 21.3 million and 278 million, up 4.6 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s Labor Day holidays repeatedly produced record high air passenger traffic, said Li Yanwei, a professor at the Civil Aviation University of China. This year’s decline is connected to the recent surge in jet fuel prices and the staggered effect of the newly introduced spring break, Li pointed out.

Aviation fuel prices have soared on the back of the Middle East conflict, which has curtailed international crude oil supplies, while several Chinese provinces have brought in week-long spring breaks for primary and secondary school students, typically around the Tomb Sweeping Festival in April or early May.

Some 1.5 billion trips were made across regions in China during the five-day Labor Day holiday, averaging about 300 million a day, an increase of 3.5 percent, per official data.

Daily flight numbers averaged about 15,700, a 2.6 percent decline, with the decline much more pronounced in the domestic market, according to statistics from Flight Manager. Of China’s 41 airports with annual passenger traffic above 10 million, 31 handled fewer flights over the holiday, 12 of which recoded declines of more than 5 percent.

Between April 28 and 30, bookings for flights within China were unchanged from a year ago, while those for international flights rose, with destinations in Southeast Asia and Europe popular, according to data from travel app Umetrip.

Airfares over the Labor Day holiday surged this year, mainly because of the substantial rise in fuel surcharges since April 5. As a result, many price-sensitive travelers switched to high-speed rail and other transportation.

The average domestic airfare was about CNY925 (USD135) over holiday, up nearly 14 percent from the same period in 2019 and 10 percent from a year earlier, according to Flight Manager’s data. Ticket prices, before tax, had begun increasing in the first quarter.

They dropped after the Labor Day break, increasing the operational pressure on airlines. Tickets from Shanghai to Sanya, Haikou, Qingdao, and Quanzhou for before mid-May are on sale on Umetrip for as little as around CNY200.

Editor: Futura Costaglione