China's domestic route fuel surcharges will be increased starting April 5th, prompting travelers to buy tickets in advance; coupled with spring break in many regions and the Qingming Festival forming a 6-day long holiday, this April is seeing an unusual simultaneous rise in both volume and price of air tickets in China's civil aviation market.
According to FlightMaster data, over 1.9 million tickets have been booked for China routes during this year's Qingming holiday, a year-on-year increase of 20%; bookings for inbound and outbound routes exceeded 590,000, up 12% year-on-year. The average base fare for Qingming domestic tickets is 656 RMB (384.21 MYR), a year-on-year increase of 10.1%.
On March 25th, Spring Airlines was the first to announce an increase in the fuel surcharge for Chinese routes starting April 5th, becoming the first airline to officially announce a price adjustment. According to China's monthly price adjustment mechanism on the 5th of each month, with current oil prices remaining high, the fuel surcharge is expected to increase from 20 RMB (11.71 MYR) to around 50 RMB (29.28 MYR). Airlines such as Juneyao and Xiamen Airlines have already raised fees for some international routes. The fuel surcharge increase has led to ticket-hoarding among consumers, with many travelers locking in their travel plans in advance to avoid increased costs.
Ms. Meng, a parent from Chengdu, said: "I was still hesitating whether to travel during spring break or during the May Day holiday, but after hearing that the fuel surcharge was about to rise a lot, I felt that now is still a pretty cost-effective time to travel."
The spring break policy has not only boosted travel demand in core hub cities such as Chengdu, Nanjing, and Hangzhou, but also activated air traffic in a number of secondary cities. According to Flight Manager data, from April 1st to 6th, cities such as Yangzhou, Xuzhou, and Yancheng all saw growth in both flight volume and ticket prices.