China's civil aviation industry started winter-spring season on Sunday, with 216 domestic and foreign airlines planning to offer 116,000 passenger and cargo flights per week, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
Running from Oct 25 to March 27 next year, the winter-spring season will see around 94,000 flights operated by 61 domestic airlines, with 34 domestic airlines planning to open 288 new domestic routes.
"In the new season, we plan to open 21 new routes, with a focus on increasing frequencies and launching new routes to popular ice-and-snow tourism areas such as the three northeastern provinces (of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang) and Xinjiang, as well as traditional popular tourism and warm-weather destinations in south China and southwest China," said Gao Lingyun, deputy general manager of the Network Revenue Department of China Eastern Airlines' Marketing Division.
In terms of international flights, 191 airlines plan to arrange 21,812 flights per week, reaching 85 foreign countries. Passenger services will cover 84 countries with 16,654 weekly flights.
Passenger flights to Central Asia, South Asia, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America will all increase year on year, with flight volumes to 17 countries, including Kazakhstan, India, Canada, and Belgium, growing by more than 40 percent.
"We will continue to restore and expand our international route network. In the new season, we will soon launch the first route from China to Iceland. In addition, we will focus on optimizing our southbound route network and increase capacity in the Australia-New Zealand market, as well as key Southeast Asian markets including Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam," said Zhou Yeting, senior deputy manager of Network Planning and Flight Planning at Air China.
The aviation market for inbound tourism is also growing notably, with planned frequencies on 16 premium inbound tourism routes, including Moscow-Haikou, Ulan Bator-Beijing and Busan-Zhangjiajie, rising 45.9 percent year on year.
China's civil aviation starts winter-spring season with 116,000 domestic, int'l flights planned per week
A quake-damaged primary school in Maru Township, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, has set up more than 30 tents on the playground to serve as temporary shelters for the teaching staff and their families.
The 7.0-magnitude quake struck Baqen County of Nagqu City at 22:33 Beijing time (1433 GMT) on Thursday.
Maru Township was among the areas hit hardest by the quake. The township's only primary school, Maru Township Primary School, was damaged heavily.
Two teaching buildings showed varying degrees of destruction, including visible wall cracks, shattered windows, and some structural collapses. The dormitories for the teaching staff and the students were also affected. Fortunately, all the students and teachers were safely evacuated.
Many of the students were sleeping in their dormitories when the quake occurred. Following the earthquake, the teachers immediately evacuated the students to safety.
"We went to the dormitories right away. Some students were still sleeping, so we woke them up and got them out," a teacher said.
While some teachers were injured in the quake, no students were hurt.
The school's sports field has now been converted into a centralized shelter, where over 30 thick, cotton tents have been set up for the teaching staff, their families, and logistics workers.
Supplies inside the tents are plentiful, including thick quilts, food, snacks, and local specialty tea. Power was restored the day after the earthquake, and logistics staff are ensuring three meals a day for everyone.
One child living in the shelter said six people share a tent, and the quilts distributed to them are quite thick.
"It feels like home because my family is here, and I have my meals here in the morning, at noon, and in the evening," the child said.
Since the winter vacation has not yet begun, the school is actively working out a plan to address the students' schooling, including online teaching or transferring students to nearby safe schools.
To cope with the winter cold, the school has applied to local authorities for prefabricated housing units, which are expected to arrive in the next two days. These units will replace the tents and serve as temporary classrooms.
Quake-damaged school in Xizang sets up tents on playground to shelter teaching staff, their families
