Air China Ensures Smooth Travel During 2026 May Day Holiday with Optimized Flight Layout

Air China has coordinated its domestic and international markets and optimized its layout to cope with the characteristics of the 2026 May Day holiday civil aviation market, which featured “peaks at the start and end, stability in the middle, and regional differentiation”. During the holiday period, the airline deployed a total of 7,851 flights and guaranteed the smooth travel of 1.195 million passengers, effectively meeting the concentrated travel demand.

China Daily reports that the total civil aviation passenger volume during the 2026 May Day holiday reached 10.54 million, with a daily average of 2.108 million passengers. Against this industry backdrop, Air China made targeted adjustments to its flight capacity, with 6,733 domestic flights put into operation, averaging 1,347 flights per day. For international and regional routes, the airline deployed 1,118 flights, with a daily average of 223 flights, facilitating cross-border and inter-regional travel.

The passenger flow peak during the holiday occurred on May 1, when Air China transported 268,000 passengers in a single day, reflecting the concentrated travel demand at the start of the holiday. China News Service notes that Beijing’s two major airports handled more than 1.7 million passengers during the holiday, with Air China’s flights at these hubs playing a key role in supporting passenger travel.

To accurately match market demand, Air China focused on increasing capacity on popular routes. For international and regional routes, it added 10 flights on Asia-Pacific related routes, catering to the growing demand for cross-border travel. Domestically, the airline maintained the overall investment scale in high-traffic regions and increased capacity by 82 flights on key routes.

These key domestic routes include Beijing to Dali, Zhangjiajie, Beihai, Shantou and Dunhuang, as well as Chongqing to Yinchuan and Hangzhou to Guangzhou. The additional capacity has effectively eased passenger flow pressure and improved travel accessibility, ensuring a smooth and efficient travel experience for passengers.

Air China’s C919 domestic large jet also played a role in holiday travel, operating on key routes to enhance transportation capacity. Guangming Net reports that Air China has continued to promote the large-scale and high-quality commercial operation of domestic aircraft during the summer and autumn flight season, which has laid a solid foundation for ensuring holiday travel capacity.

Currently, Air China is summarizing the operation experience of the May Day holiday, adjusting its flight layout according to market changes, and optimizing capacity allocation for subsequent peak travel periods. It will continue to focus on passenger demand, improve service quality, and further enhance its operational efficiency to provide more reliable air travel services for passengers.