According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) forecasts, an estimated 34.88 million passengers are expected to travel by air during the Spring Festival travel season, a 7 percent jump over the same period last year.

At a national civil aviation conference, Xia Xinghua, deputy chief of CAAC, urged the whole sector to ensure a safe and smooth journey for passengers during the coming peak travel season. Xia said at the conference that CAAC requires all aviation authorities, airlines and airports to give top priority to safe transportation during the Spring Festival period.

Xia stressed that airlines and airports must take effective steps to reduce flight delays and provide high quality services to ensure smooth operations during the period. He also asked airlines and airports to improve contingency plans in case of flight delays due to bad weather conditions like frequent snow storm and heavy fog in the season.

CAAC urged airline companies to make proper arrangements of flights to meet the increasing demand of passengers who return home from work or study to have family reunions, or travel on holidays. Airlines are allowed to apply for temporary flights on the routes without regular flights yet, and fly direct flights instead of the stopover flights under normal operations. The administration also asked airlines and airports to ensure a smooth passengers flow and transportation of important goods for the holiday.

Mainland carries are asked to add cross-strait flights between Taiwan and mainland China as there will be a large number of people traveling across the strait for family reunions during the 40-day rush holiday period starting from Jan. 8 to Feb. 16, said Xia.