China's civil aviation industry saw a decline in the number of air trips and volume of mail and cargo in August amid a recent resurgence of COVID-19, official data showed Tuesday.
About 22.41 million passenger trips were made last month, a decrease of 51.5 percent from a year earlier, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said at a press conference.
The number of trips is about 36.6 percent of that recorded in the same period in 2019, the CAAC said.
The volume of mail and cargo transported stood at 520,000 tonnes, down 5.6 percent year on year, while the total air transport turnover dropped 35.6 percent year on year to 4.91 billion tonne-km, according to the CAAC.
The eastern province of Jiangsu, where China's recent COVID-19 resurgence first emerged, last week announced that it has cleared all high- and medium-risk areas.
Despite being restrained by recent COVID-19 cases, air travel demand is expected to be unleashed during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival holiday and the National Day holiday, said CAAC official Shang Kejia.
As the latest booking data from online travel agencies showed, the number of air passenger trips will rise notably during the two holidays from the July-August level, Shang said.
To meet the growing demand, the CAAC said it will help airlines better plan transport capacity, schedules and air routes. It has also advised several airlines to increase the number of flights for the holidays.
This year's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday lasts from Sept. 19 to 21, while the National Day break runs from Oct. 1 to 7.
