Airline passengers surge 11.7 pct during Spring Festival rush

Chinese airlines carried almost 49.2 million passengers during the 40-day Spring Festival travel period, known as "chunyun", which concluded on Sunday.

This is an 11.7-percent rise over the corresponding period last year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said on Monday.

Airlines operated 360,000 flights during the period, up 9.3 percent.

Each airline carried 1.23 million passengers on average, said the CAAC.

With a combined average of 1.91 million seats available each day, the airlines met demand quite comfortably.

The megacities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen saw the most passenger departures during the first half of chunyun as people left their place of work or study to return to their hometowns.

In contrast, airports in the southwest and northeast of China were busiest towards the end of the 40-day period as tens of millions of Chinese returned to work or schools after spending time with family.

On both Feb. 23 and Feb. 24, the airlines carried more than 1.35 million passengers, an all-time daily high, according to the CAAC.

The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, which fell on Feb. 19 this year, is traditionally a time for family reunions. The Spring Festival holiday usually lasts seven days for office workers and a month for students.

Chunyun has been called the world's largest human migration.