China's nine-day Lunar New Year holiday is coming to an end, and the return travel peak has arrived. Every year during the Spring Festival travel season, airline tickets for leaving Hainan Island attract a lot of attention and are always in short supply. Currently, the island's three major airports have entered the return peak period, with some ticket prices as high as 10,000 yuan (RMB, about 5,600 Malaysian Ringgit).
As a popular winter destination for avoiding the cold in China, Hainan experiences a large increase in travelers during Lunar New Year. Affected by supply and demand as well as limited off-island transportation options, airfares overall are often in short supply. Netizens have reported on social media that tickets to leave Hainan are running out and very expensive.
According to third-party ticketing platforms, economy class tickets for direct flights from Sanya to Hangzhou on Monday, the seventh day of the lunar calendar (February 23), are basically sold out. The cheapest ticket that day is 9,060 yuan. For the remaining direct flights, only full-fare business class tickets are left, with prices close to 10,000 yuan.
From Saturday to Sunday (21st to 22nd), all economy class seats on the Haikou to Shanghai route are sold out, leaving only a small number of full-fare business class tickets, also priced close to 10,000 yuan. Travel platform "Flight Butler" shows that in the coming week, the average price of tickets for leaving Hainan Island is 2,141.5 yuan, up 6.7% year-on-year.
According to The Paper, Hainan Airport said on Saturday that the return travel peak is expected to occur on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, with the province’s single-day air passenger volume expected to exceed 232,000.
It is reported that airlines have added over 2,000 extra flights for the Spring Festival in Hainan, expecting to provide 600,000 extra seats. During the 40 days of Spring Festival travel season, over 10 million seats will be offered, a 10% increase compared to 2025.
In response to the return peak, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has specifically approved a second batch of extra flights, precisely allocated to popular destinations such as Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Fuzhou, and Shenzhen. On the fifth to seventh days of the Lunar New Year (21st to 23rd), there are more than 100 daily flights between Hainan and Beijing or Shanghai.
Meanwhile, railways and highways also saw their return travel peaks on Saturday. According to China State Railway Group, the national railway was expected to send 16.8 million passengers that day, with 2,052 extra passenger trains planned. That day, 740,000 people were expected to travel back to Beijing by train.
CCTV News reported that road traffic nationwide also increased significantly on Saturday, with more return travel by car and an expected highway traffic volume of more than 65 million vehicles.
According to third-party ticketing platforms, economy class tickets for direct flights from Sanya to Hangzhou on Monday, the seventh day of the lunar calendar (February 23), are basically sold out. The cheapest ticket that day is 9,060 yuan. For the remaining direct flights, only full-fare business class tickets are left, with prices close to 10,000 yuan.
From Saturday to Sunday (21st to 22nd), all economy class seats on the Haikou to Shanghai route are sold out, leaving only a small number of full-fare business class tickets, also priced close to 10,000 yuan. Travel platform "Flight Butler" shows that in the coming week, the average price of tickets for leaving Hainan Island is 2,141.5 yuan, up 6.7% year-on-year.
According to The Paper, Hainan Airport said on Saturday that the return travel peak is expected to occur on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, with the province’s single-day air passenger volume expected to exceed 232,000.
It is reported that airlines have added over 2,000 extra flights for the Spring Festival in Hainan, expecting to provide 600,000 extra seats. During the 40 days of Spring Festival travel season, over 10 million seats will be offered, a 10% increase compared to 2025.
In response to the return peak, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has specifically approved a second batch of extra flights, precisely allocated to popular destinations such as Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Fuzhou, and Shenzhen. On the fifth to seventh days of the Lunar New Year (21st to 23rd), there are more than 100 daily flights between Hainan and Beijing or Shanghai.
Meanwhile, railways and highways also saw their return travel peaks on Saturday. According to China State Railway Group, the national railway was expected to send 16.8 million passengers that day, with 2,052 extra passenger trains planned. That day, 740,000 people were expected to travel back to Beijing by train.
CCTV News reported that road traffic nationwide also increased significantly on Saturday, with more return travel by car and an expected highway traffic volume of more than 65 million vehicles.