Airports in China welcome travel surge during Spring Festival holiday

Airports in China are experiencing a surge in passenger flows during this year's Spring Festival holiday.

The travel rush, known as 'chunyun' in Chinese, is considered the world's largest annual human migration for family reunions during the Spring Festival holiday. It lasts from Jan 14 to Feb 22.

According to Hainan Airport Group, the three major airports on Hainan Island - the Haikou Meilan International Airport, the Sanya Phoenix International Airport and the Qionghai Boao International Airport - are set to operate 9,489 flights and transport over 1.65 million passengers during the holiday from Jan 28 to Feb 4, which is expected to set a new record.

As of Jan 27, the Haikou Meilan International Airport had handled more than 100,000 passengers daily for 10 consecutive days. The airport is estimated to experience its post-holiday travel peak on Feb 4, with a planned passenger flow of over 118,000.

"My parents live here, and I came here to celebrate the Chinese New Year with them and feel the atmosphere of the Spring Festival in Hainan. We plan to visit various scenic spots in Hainan and surrounding areas and take a look at the local customs and traditions," said a Singaporean tourist.

Meanwhile, the Sanya Phoenix International Airport is expected to operate 3,573 flights and transport 680,000 passengers during the holiday.

"From the start of the 2025 Spring Festival travel rush to Jan 28, the daily passenger flow of the Sanya Phoenix International Airport had surpassed 80,000 for 12 consecutive days," said Chen Lei, deputy general manager of the Marketing Department of the Sanya Phoenix International Airport.

The Qionghai Boao International Airport is also anticipated to manage 2,150 takeoffs and landings, serving an estimated 290,000 passengers.

The Baiyun International Airport in south China's Guangdong Province is expected to handle over 61,000 flights and nearly 9.5 million passengers, in addition to 238,000 tons of cargo and mail.

Cross-border travel is also booming thanks to enhanced visa-free policies, with three new international routes now connecting Guangzhou to Jeju, Bangkok, and Osaka.

Border inspection officials predict a daily increase of 5 to 10 percent in passenger traffic, reaching as many as 49,000 passengers per day.

Peak outbound travel is happening right now and expected to continue through Saturday, while inbound travel will likely peak from next Tuesday to Saturday.

Airports in China welcome travel surge during Spring Festival holiday

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight