Beijing Capital International Airport [Photo via tuchong.com]

Beijing Capital International Airport, one of the city's two airports, will see a rise in passenger trips during the upcoming May Day holiday, indicating an upturn in China's civil aviation sector.

The airport is expected to handle 831,900 passenger trips from April 29 to May 3, with a daily average of 166,400 trips. A total of 5,500 flights are planned to land at and depart from the airport, with a daily average of 1,100 flights, airport operation control center staff member Feng Liwei said.

The holiday peak is expected to last from Saturday to May 3, the first and last day of the holiday, with about 178,500 and 177,700 passenger trips to and from the airport.

He noted the number is expected to increase drastically compared with the Spring Festival holiday at the end of January, the first long holiday since China downgraded its COVID-19 management measures on January 8.

Daily average passenger trips during that holiday numbered about 110,000.

The May Day holiday is the second long holiday since the downgrade of the COVID-19 management, and people's willingness to travel is even stronger.

"I am very happy to see a crowded airport again, unlike the quiet one during the epidemic," Feng said.

Hua Rui from the airport's aviation business department said the number of domestic flights at the airport has increased significantly, even more than the volume in 2019.

She also noted the airport handles an average of 75 international flights and 22 flights to and from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan every day.

The airport has 55 international destinations, covering 41 countries on five continents. Regular flights to some international cities such as Frankfurt and Moscow have returned to one or more flights per day.

Regular routes to cities including Bangkok, Dubai and Tokyo have resumed, with two or more daily flights.

As the May Day holiday approaches, searches for Beijing outbound air tickets have increased significantly. Top travel destinations are domestic cities as well as places elsewhere in Asia, such as Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao, Tokyo, Bangkok and Singapore, Hua said.