Civil aviation authorities expecting record passenger trips during 2026 Spring Festival travel rush

China's civil aviation sector is expected to handle 95 million passenger trips during the upcoming annual Spring Festival travel rush, with an average of 2.38 million passenger trips per day, a year-on-year increase of 5.3 percent, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said Monday.

This year's travel rush period, also known as chunyun, will run from Feb 2 to March 13, and this year's official Spring Festival holiday is scheduled for Feb 15 to 23.

Each year during the Spring Festival travel rush, millions of people who work, study, or live away from their hometowns will return home to reunite with their families for the Spring Festival, China's most important traditional holiday, forming the world's largest annual human migration.

During the upcoming travel rush, the national civil aviation system is expected to handle 780,000 flights, averaging 19,400 flights per day, a year-on-year increase of 5 percent.

Two peak travel periods are expected before and after the Spring Festival holiday. With the Spring Festival to fall later than usual this year, the return travel flow of students and other travelers will be more concentrated, with the daily peak passenger flow potentially reaching 2.6 million passenger trips, according to the CAAC. Judged by flight search and booking data, popular travel routes, such as those for ice and snow tourism in the colder north of the country and winter escape tourism in the warmer south are seeing a continued increase in attention, and outbound and inbound travel routes are also expected to see new travel peaks, thanks to the adoption of favorable measures such as the integration of aviation, culture and tourism, inbound and outbound travel promotion, and extension of holiday seasons. In response to potential complex situation arising from massive passenger flow, high-density operations, and localized rain, snow, and freezing weather during the Spring Festival travel rush, the CAAC has urged industrial operators to strictly implement their overall plans for winter civil aviation operation support and to make perfect their various emergency response plans.

Civil aviation authorities expecting record passenger trips during 2026 Spring Festival travel rush

At least 40 people were confirmed dead, while dozens of others remained hospitalized after two high-speed trains collided near the city of Cordoba in southern Spain on Sunday.

The accident occurred at around 19:45 local time (1845 GMT) when a train carrying 317 passengers on the Malaga-Madrid route derailed for reasons still unknown near Amaduz, about 20 km from Cordoba, Spanish authorities said.

The derailed train struck another high-speed train traveling on an adjacent track from Madrid to Huelva, causing the latter to derail.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday announced three days of official mourning for the train accident.

Sanchez canceled his scheduled agenda and traveled to the crash site, where he addressed the media and announced that the national mourning period would begin at midnight on Monday. He pledged a full investigation into the cause of the accident, describing it as a "painful day" for the country.

Juanma Moreno, president of the Andalusian regional government, said the impact of the derailment was "extremely violent," noting that some bodies had been found hundreds of meters from the crash site, suggesting that passengers had been thrown from the train.

He warned that more victims could be discovered as rescue operations continue.

Spain's Transport Minister Oscar Puente said earlier that it was "strange" for such an accident to occur on a straight section of track that had only been laid in May 2025. He added that the Malaga-Madrid service, operated by private company Iryo, was using relatively new rolling stock built in 2022.

Alvaro Fernandez Heredia, president of Spain's state-owned rail operator Renfe, told Spanish state radio network RNE that human error had "been practically ruled out," suggesting the cause was more likely related to Iryo's rolling stock or an infrastructure failure.

Spanish media also reported that in August 2025, the national train drivers' union had raised concerns with infrastructure operator ADIF over defects on the same section of track, including surface damage, unevenness and problems with overhead power lines.

40 confirmed dead after high-speed train collision in Spain