China air travel market recovered to almost 90pc of year-earlier levels during the country's golden week holiday, helping maintain a recovery in jet fuel demand.
There were an average of 14,665 of flights a day during the 1-8 October holiday, 89.7pc of last year's volume, China's civil aviation administration (CAAC) said. Domestic flights made up the large majority of these, at an average of 13,732 a day.
The CAAC did not provide a comparison with domestic flight numbers a year earlier, but figures from Chinese flight data provider Variflight show that domestic flights recovered to the same level as during the 1-7 October 2019 holiday. But international flights were just 10pc of last year's level.
China's domestic jet fuel demand recovery has accelerated since May. Flights into and out of airports in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai increased by 23pc in August from July levels, airport data show. This is helping to sustain a tentative recovery in jet fuel production, which has risen consistently since May to hit 78pc of January levels in August. Jet fuel refining yields, which fell below 5pc in April, rebounded to over 6pc in August.
An estimated 379mn road journeys were made during 1-8 October, transport ministry data show, of an average of 47.4mn a day — down by 31pc from a year earlier. But truck traffic rose by 15pc to 5.78mn a day in the same comparison, thanks partly to a reduction in highway tolls during the holiday.
Gasoline sales picked up in September in Shandong province, the main independent refining hub in north China, supported by downstream buying in preparation for the holiday.
