Sanya Airport braces for holiday travel boom

Inbound passengers go through immigration inspection at Sanya Phoenix International Airport. [Photo/Sanya Daily]

The 2026 Spring Festival travel rush for air travel kicks off on Feb 2 and it runs through to March 13, spanning 40 days — with Sanya Phoenix International Airport projected to handle around 18,600 flights and transport about 3.493 million passengers.

The overlap of tourists and people returning home is expected to create a busy travel period for the airport.

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

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

To ensure thorough and detailed support for the Spring Festival travel rush, Sanya Phoenix International Airport has implemented three key measures:

First, it's started trial operations at Terminal 3, while continuing work in Terminals 1 and 2, as well as the international terminal — to effectively spread out the passenger flows and alleviate pressure on overall flight operations.

Second, it's strengthening end-to-end flight management, adapting to travelers' preferences and needs to continuously enhance the travel experience.

Lastly, it's extending the collaborative mechanism with the Hainan Regional Operations Coordination Committee of Civil Aviation — including the trial operations of four temporary inbound and outbound flight routes, to further improve airspace utilization and overall operational efficiency.