(Yicai) Feb. 19 -- China’s international flights during the eight-day Chinese New Year holiday recovered to only 69 percent of the level in the same period of 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to industry data.

About 15,000 international flights were operated in China between Feb. 10 and Feb. 17, according to data from flight tracker Flight Master.

International flights between China and Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and many other popular countries have already exceeded the level in the same period of 2019. Meanwhile, flights to Thailand and the United States returned to only 60 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

The most popular outbound destinations among Chinese tourists during the Chinese New Year holiday were Bangkok in Thailand, Hong Kong, Seoul in South Korea, Singapore, and Macao, according to data from flight tracker TravelSky Technology. The number of Chinese tourists traveling to Bangkok exceeded 90,000, recovering to 80 percent of the level in the same period in 2019.

Meanwhile, China’s domestic tourism soared to new highs. Nearly 18 million people traveled by air within the country during the Chinese New Year holiday, with the daily figure exceeding 2.2 million passengers, according to data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Both figures were new records.

But air tickets became more expensive this year. The average domestic flight price for economy class was CNY1,011 (USD141) during the Chinese New Year break, up 20 percent from a year earlier and 16 percent from the same period in 2019, data from Flight Master showed.

Despite the quick recovery of the domestic flight market, the profitability of China’s civil aviation will still depend on the resumption of international flights, according to industry insiders. The CAAC predicted that the country’s international passenger flights will recover to about 80 percent of the pre-pandemic level this year.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione