The May Day holiday is approaching, but the price of air tickets has temporarily dived, and many people who bought tickets in advance have suffered a loss. What's going on?
According to the data of Feichang Zhun, the total take-off and landing of domestic airports during this year's May Day holiday is expected to be 151612, with an average daily take-off and landing of 30,322 flights, an increase of 8.99% compared with last year's May Day holiday and an increase of 36.2% compared with 2019. This year's May Day holiday will break last year's record and usher in the busiest May Day holiday in history.
At the same time, the average price of domestic economy class air tickets during the May Day holiday in the past 7 days was 852 yuan (excluding tax), down 1.13% year-on-year, and down 22% from the average price in the previous 7 days.
At present, there are still low-cost direct flight tickets on many popular routes on May Day, such as Shanghai to Urumqi ticket price from 690 yuan, Shanghai to Beijing ticket price from 460 yuan, Guangzhou to Beijing ticket price from 530 yuan.
△ On May 1, the price of air tickets from Guangzhou to Beijing. (Photo taken from Ctrip App)
In the face of the "expiring" price reduction of air tickets, many netizens shouted that they were at a loss.
△ The picture is taken from the comments of netizens.
According to the analysis of people in the civil aviation industry, there seems to be a contradiction between "busy" and "price reduction", but there is actually an internal connection. It is precisely because airlines have added too much capacity that the supply exceeds demand, and there are still many seats that have not been sold during the upcoming holidays, so the temporary price adjustment promotion can sell one by one.
It is a common practice for airlines to adjust capacity and increase flight volume during holidays. A few days ago, China Southern Airlines announced that it would work overtime temporarily on routes from Shanghai Pudong to Changsha, Shantou and Wuhan during the May Day period, and planned to launch wide-body aircraft on routes from Shanghai to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Urumqi and Beijing.
According to the data of Feichang Zhun, during the May Day holiday, 41 domestic passenger airlines are expected to operate 77,327 flights, with an average of 15,500 flights per day. The number of flights of Middle East Airlines is expected to reach 12,322, ranking first. China Southern Airlines and Air China ranked second and third with 11,982 and 8,544 flights. Among the 41 airlines, 34 airlines are expected to achieve year-on-year growth in flight volume, of which China Express Airlines is expected to increase by 45.77%, the largest increase, and 39 airlines are expected to achieve growth compared with 2019, of which Chengdu Airlines is expected to increase by 1.11 times, the largest increase.
△ The picture comes from Fei Changzhun.
In addition to the factors of airlines increasing capacity, the diversion of civil aviation passenger flow by high-speed rail is also the reason why the plane is not full and the ticket price temporarily dives.
Taking last year's May Day holiday travel data as an example, the average daily number of domestic tourists in China at that time was 14% higher than that of the same period in 2019 on a comparable basis, but the average daily passenger traffic of China's civil aviation during the May Day holiday last year only increased by 4.2% compared with the same period in 2019. At the same time, the average daily passenger volume of railways nationwide during the May Day holiday last year was 24.6% higher than that of the same period in 2019.
On April 24 this year, China Railway Shanghai Bureau Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shanghai Bureau Group) released the Yangtze River Delta Railway 2024 May Day holiday transportation plan, the holiday transportation period from April 29 to May 6 for a total of 8 days, the Yangtze River Delta Railway is expected to send more than 27 million passengers, an average of more than 3.4 million passengers per day, and the average daily passenger data may hit a record high.
In addition, according to the Shanghai Bureau of the National Railway, the Yangtze River Delta region to Beijing, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Changsha and other places passenger flow is hot. It is expected that the number of passengers sent on May 1 will exceed the record set by the Qingming holiday in a single day. The railway department adopts the basic operation chart plan, the May Day passenger plan, and the emergency plan to arrange the capacity in three batches, and plans to add 192.5 pairs of passenger trains, including 133 pairs of night EMU trains.
Xiao Peng, a researcher at Qunar Big Data Research Institute, said: "Unlike last year's May Day 'family visit + tourism', this year's May Day tourists are mainly pure tourism. From the point of view of bookings, the number of tourists during this year's May Day holiday will exceed last year, but the average price paid for air tickets and hotels in popular tourist cities has declined, and data from the Qunar platform shows that as of April 10, hotel bookings in popular cities during this year's May Day holiday have increased by 30% year-on-year, and the average price of hotels has decreased by 20%. In addition, the afternoon of April 30, the morning of May 1 and May 5 are the peak travel periods, and the price of tickets for popular routes has not decreased during this period. ”
"First, compared with last year, the number of flights and hotel rooms have increased, and after the recovery of the supply chain, the relationship between supply and demand tends to be reasonable; second, with the joint efforts of tourism platforms, merchants and market supervision departments, the undesirable phenomenon of malicious price increases and price gouging has been suppressed, and the tourism market environment is healthier; third, with more and more domestic small city destinations being discovered, and outbound travel resumed, tourists no longer gather in big cities, relieving the pressure on big cities. Xiao Peng said that if the tourists who have not yet determined the May Day travel plan, where they can go if they have a ticket, "picking up the missing tour" may become the mainstream of this year's May Day holiday.
During this year's May Day holiday, are you ready to travel? Let's talk in the comment area!
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