Airlines increase frequency of Sanya routes for travel rush

The 2026 Spring Festival travel rush began on Feb 2 and will last to March 13, spanning 40 days.

This is also the first Spring Festival travel rush since the launch of island-wide special customs operations in the Hainan Free Trade Port on Dec 18, 2025.

As a highly popular tourist destination, Sanya is expected to experience a peak in travel and to meet the demand several airlines have added new routes and increased the frequency of flights to and from Sanya, offering travelers more options.

Starting Feb 3, the Hainan branch of Sichuan Airlines introduced a new Sanya-Mianyang-Lanzhou route. Daily flights of the Sanya-Chengdu route will increase from three to four from Feb 9, further refining the flexible and convenient travel experience for passengers between the two cities.

In addition, Hainan Airlines plans to expand its overall transport capacity in the Hainan market by about seven percent compared with the 2025 Spring Festival rush period. In the domestic market, Hainan Airlines is focusing on popular winter tourist destinations such as Sanya and Harbin — significantly increasing the deployment of wide-body aircraft to meet demand.

Over in the Sanya market, Hainan Airlines has deployed eight wide-body aircraft for overnight capacity, an increase of three compared with the same period last year. The carrier plans to gradually increase the number to 12 aircraft in the future.

According to Sanya Phoenix International Airport, during the Spring Festival rush period, the airport is expected to handle 18,600 flights and transport over 3.49 million passengers.

To meet the high travel demand, it's working with airlines to optimize its capacity by deploying more wide-body aircraft on key routes.

In addition, new domestic routes such as Sanya-Dazhou-Lhasa and Sanya-Qingdao flights have been introduced, along with the new Sanya-Irkutsk international route.