The Chinese New Year is approaching, and millions of Chinese people are going back home to have a family reunion. To meet the increasing travel needs during the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush from January 24 to March 3, China Eastern Airlines (MU) is scheduled to add 9,300 flights on over 200 domestic and international routes, 73% of which will be added in Shanghai, Xi'an and Kunming.

According to the Shanghai-based carrier, it will operate 97,000 flights totally and offer 16 million seats, with 2,400 flights on daily basis.

For domestic market, more flights would be deployed on Shanghai-outbound routes to Nanchang, Fuzhou, Ganzhou, Yichang, Lijiang and Wuhan, Shenzhen-inbound routes from Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and other routes like Nanjing-Xiamen, Guangzhou-Nanchang and Wenzhou-Xi'an. For international and regional services, extra flights are added on Shanghai-Phuket, Shanghai-Taipei, Nanjing-Taipei, Wuxi-Taipei, Shanghai-Okinawa, Shanghai-Auckland, Kunming-Bangkok, Ningbo-Bangkok, Xi'an-Taipei and Kunming-Siem Reap routes.

In bid to expand transport capacity, China Eastern plans to change to larger aircraft on some popular routes. During the Spring Festival travel rush, the airline's Boeing 777-300ER aircraft will be deployed on some popular long-haul routes such as Shanghai-Taipei and Shanghai-Sydney, in addition to North American market.

What's more, the Shanghai-based carrier offers special promotions and benefits for passengers. Besides, on Nov. 12 MU became the first airline in China to offer free W-iFi on flights from Shanghai to Los Angles, New York and Toronto. Such service will also be available on part of flights linking Shanghai with Beijing and Guangzhou during the travel rush, which enables them to pay New Year's call to family even in air.