China-Europe flights emerge as summer travel hotspot

Flights between China and Europe are emerging as a bright spot in China's summer travel market, as travelers begin booking earlier for the peak holiday season and international demand continues to recover, industry data showed.

As of Wednesday, bookings for July flights between China and Europe had exceeded 810,000, up 25 percent year-on-year, according to data from Umetrip, a flight information service provider. Planned flights on these routes had topped 10,000, an increase of about 27 percent from a year earlier.

The growth comes as China's civil aviation sector operates its summer-autumn flight schedule, which began in late March and runs through Oct 24. Airlines have added or restored international routes, increased frequencies and adjusted networks ahead of the summer travel rush.

Overall travel demand is also gaining momentum. As of Tuesday, domestic flight bookings for July had exceeded 2.35 million, slightly higher than the same period last year, while bookings for inbound and outbound flights had topped 2.44 million, up about 9 percent year-on-year.

Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Kunming, Urumqi, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Shenyang and Xi'an ranked among the most popular domestic destinations for July. Compared with the May Day holiday, Kunming in Yunnan province and Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have seen stronger interest, driven by their relatively cooler summer weather and appeal as vacation destinations.

Outbound travel demand remained steady, with Seoul, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Taipei, Singapore, London, Kuala Lumpur and Moscow among the most popular destinations.

Before the summer peak, the Dragon Boat Festival holiday in late June is also expected to provide a short-term boost. As of Tuesday, domestic flight bookings for the holiday had exceeded 930,000, slightly higher than a year earlier, while inbound and outbound bookings had topped 450,000, up about 9 percent.

Xinjiang has emerged as one of the favored destinations for the holiday, with more than 48,000 flight bookings, mainly from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Xi'an.