The new civil aviation season is approaching, and with rising fuel costs expected, May 1st flight bookings are warming up earlier.

Ask AI · How do fuel cost increase expectations prompt early booking of May Day flights?

Cailian News Agency March 28 (Reporter Hu Haoqiong and Chen Kang) The Civil Aviation 2026 summer and autumn new airline schedule will start on March 29 and run through October 24, covering multiple peak travel seasons, including the May Day holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival, and National Day.

Industry insiders say that the most notable feature of this new airline schedule this year is that capacity has increased somewhat on business express routes and flights to popular tourist destinations, and—affected by rising fuel prices—“May Day” flight bookings are heating up earlier.

According to Flight Butler data, in the 2026 summer season, the nationwide civil aviation average weekly frequency reaches 1.27 million flights, down 1.63% from the 2025 summer season. Of that, domestic flights fall by 2.71%, while international flights increase by 3.34%.

Cailian News Agency reporters learned that, in recent days, multiple airlines and airports have successively released their 2026 summer and autumn new airline schedule flight execution plans.

For airlines: China Eastern Airlines (600115.SH) plans, in this new season, to deploy 823 passenger aircraft (including 14 domestically produced C919 passenger aircraft) and operate over 950 passenger routes; daily average flights exceed 3,200, a year-on-year increase of 1.3%. It also plans to open 30 new international regional routes and 41 new domestic routes. For international routes, Europe routes will have more than 160 weekly first-departure flights, up 24%; weekly departing flight volume to Southeast Asia exceeds 500, up 13%.

After the schedule shift, the total number of routes for Juneyao Air (603885.SH) will reach nearly 150, serving 15 countries and regions, with direct service airports for nearly 100 cities. For international routes, to meet sustained growth in outbound leisure travel demand, two European routes—Shanghai to Helsinki and Shanghai to Athens—are planned to add one flight per week each, further enhancing the coverage of capacity in the European market. For peak summer travel and the start-of-term travel rush, the Shanghai to Manchester route will increase by 2 flights per week during two periods: July 18 to August 31 and September 12 to September 30.

Cailian News Agency reporters also learned from Hainan Airlines Holding (600221.SH) that, according to the current plan, Hainan Airlines will add four routes in the Northeast region: Harbin—Nanjing—Shenzhen, Harbin—Shenzhen, Harbin—Guangzhou, and Harbin—Zhengzhou—Guiyang; and will add two routes in the Anhui region: Hefei—Dalian and Hefei—Zhuhai.

For airports: Shanghai Airport (600009.SH) plans to execute an average of 2,516 flight takeoffs and landings per day in the new season, up 2.8% year on year. It will increase flights to 34 domestic destinations, including Changchun, Kunming, and Dali; open new routes to places including Kolkata in India and Tbilisi in Georgia; and increase flights to popular destinations such as Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and Istanbul.

Hainan Airport Group’s three major airports on the island plan to operate 294 routes and serve more than 150 destinations, with domestic destinations adding 22 year on year and international destinations adding 19 year on year. It has basically covered major domestic cities and popular tourist destinations. Among them, Haikou Meilan Airport has a whole-season plan to execute 117,400 flights, operate 171 routes, and serve 128 destinations; year-on-year newly added domestic destinations include Bozhou, Jiaxing, Kaili, Yan’an, and others. Sanya Phoenix Airport plans to complete 83,400 flight takeoffs and landings, operate 111 routes, and serve 94 destinations; year-on-year newly added domestic airports include Anshun, Huangshan, Xingtai, Yulin, and others.

Zhao Nan, General Manager of the Industry Development Department at TravelSky, said that the most notable characteristic of this year’s new airline schedule is that it further increases flight capacity on business express routes and flights to popular tourist destinations, with route flights in cultural-and-tourism hotspot regions such as Xinjiang, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Inner Mongolia seeing significant increases.

TravelSky’s big data shows that from April 1 to June 30, planned domestic round-trip flights to cities such as Altay, Hami, Beihai, Yili, Wuyi Mountain, Xilinhot, and Dali are all up by about 20% year on year compared with last year. For international routes, flights on routes connecting major European cities will be further increased; flights on routes connecting Southeast Asian cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta will be increased; new overseas destinations are also continuously expanding and starting operations, further driving expansion of the international route network. However, due to the impact of the international situation and overseas fuel supply, there inevitably exist uncontrollable risks in the actual operation and landing of those routes.

Worth noting is that as of today, Beijing time 6:00 a.m., Brent crude oil is trading at $106.29 per barrel, at a high level. Industry insiders told Cailian News Agency reporters that April 5 is the adjustment window for the aviation fuel surcharge, and the market expects an increase.

According to data provided by Qunar Travel, as of now, the number of flight bookings for the May Day trip has already grown by nearly 20% year on year. In previous years, May Day flight bookings typically started about two weeks earlier; this year, affected by expectations of an increase in the aviation fuel surcharge, the number of passengers locking in May Day flights early has clearly increased. It is expected that next week, the number of passengers booking May Day and summer vacation flights will continue to rise.

(Cailian News Agency reporter Hu Haoqiong)