More Flights during Spring Festival Travel Rush

The Anhui branch of China Eastern Airlines plans to operate 200-odd more flights with a capacity of nearly 40,000 seats to ease the Spring Festival travel rush, Anhui Business Daily reports.

Chinese people will make a total of 2.98 billion trips nationwide during the annual travel peak, from Jan 13 to Feb 21, up 2.2 percent year on year, according to an official forecast released last week.

Starting on Jan 20, the airlines will launch a service from Hefei, capital of East China’s Anhui province, to Zhuhai in South China's Guangdong province on a daily basis. Operated by an A320, the flight departs Hefei Xinqiao International Airport at 8:40 pm and reaches Zhuhai at 11:00 pm. It then leaves Zhuhai at 11:45 pm and arrives in Hefei at 01:55 am.

More flights are to be launched from Hefei to Guangzhou in Guangdong province, Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and Kunming, capital of Yunnan province. There will be five flights each day on the Hefei-Kunming route, and four between Hefei and Chengdu.

The branch said it may also operate flights to Beihai, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.