China's civil aviation sector released its 2025/26 winter-spring flight season on Sunday, signaling steady growth in air travel demand and a continued recovery of international routes, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Running from Sunday to March 28, 2026, the new schedule involves 210 domestic and foreign airlines operating about 119,500 passenger and cargo flights weekly, up 1.3 percent from last year. International routes will also see a significant growth.
A total of 191 airlines plan to operate 21,427 international flights per week -- a year-on-year increase of 10.8 percent -- connecting China with 83 countries. Among them, 134 carriers, including 28 Chinese and 106 foreign airlines, will offer nearly 16,000 weekly passenger flights, a 5.6 percent increase. Cargo services will cover 49 countries, totaling 5,435 flights weekly, a rise of 1.7 percent.
New passenger routes will connect China with Oman and Argentina, while fresh cargo links will be established with Panama, Chile and Switzerland.
"After the seasonal change, we will launch new flight routes from Taiyuan to Kuala Lumpur via Kunming, and from Lanzhou to Bangkok via Kunming. On December 4, we'll inaugurate the world's first southbound route from Shanghai Pudong to Buenos Aires via Auckland, which will renew the record for the world's longest one-way flight route," said Liu Yanan, Network Revenue Assistant General Manager of the airline's Marketing Department.
In addition, the route expansion in emerging markets has further advanced. Passenger flight volumes with Belt and Road partner countries accounted for 73.5 percent of the total, while passenger flights to Latin America and Africa increased by 32.1 percent and 26.1 percent, respectively, compared to the previous winter-spring season.
The new season will also introduce new capital-to-capital routes with Belt and Road partner countries such as Azerbaijan and Georgia.
China to see more flights in winter-spring season as air route network expands
