People in China are resuming travel ahead of the Lunar New Year, despite worries about infections after Beijing dropped COVID-19 curbs last month, with air passenger volumes recovering to 63% of 2019 levels since the annual travel season began.
The rapid business recovery is challenging airlines' ability to ensure safety, and great attention to pandemic-related risks is needed, said Song Zhiyong, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
China re-opened its borders on Jan. 8 after having abruptly abandoned in December a strict anti-virus regime of frequent testing, travel curbs and mass lockdowns that had fuelled historic nationwide protests in late November. Although the figure is about the same as for 2022, it points to a recovery in annual ticket sales, as cinema visitor numbers slumped after COVID worsened to bring spring lockdowns last year in major cities, such as Shanghai, the commercial hub.
According to Guosen Securities, box office revenues in 2022 totalled less than 30 billion yuan, down 36% from a year earlier.However, infections are expected to surge in rural areas as hundreds of millions return home from big cities. "Our priority focus has been on the large cities. It is time to focus on rural areas," it quoted Zeng Guang, the former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying.
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