China is Flying High Again: Cirium Survey Shows Remarkable Consumer Confidence for a Travel Restart
Chinese travelers are leading the airline travel recovery, with 96% intending to travel, according to a new survey by Cirium, the aviation analytics company. 81% of respondents say they plan to fly at least once within the next 12 months and 50% plan to fly by this autumn. Of those planning to travel, 73% stated it was for leisure with only 24% planning business travel.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211020005941/en/
Cirium's new Traveler Intelligence Report reveals China is flying high again. (Graphic: Business Wire)
The pent-up demand is also reflected in China’s passenger traffic, which is showing signs of a strong recovery. As of September 2021, China traffic was at 87% of 2019 levels — way ahead the rest of Asia (42%).
The survey revealed that two thirds (66%) of Chinese travelers have taken a domestic flight since the start of the pandemic. Cirium schedules data reveal domestic travel in Q4 is primed to outpace pre-pandemic levels, growing by some 15% compared to Q4 2019.
Following months of restrictions aligned to China’s Zero-COVID policy, pent-up demand for a major return to international and regional travel is palpable.
More than half (61%) of respondents shared that they are ready to travel out of mainland China once borders are open, with Southeast Asia as the region of choice, followed by Europe, Australia/New Zealand and East Asia.
Jeremy Bowen, CEO at Cirium said: “The Cirium survey highlights the Chinese traveler’s confidence in flying domestically and pent-up demand when it comes to flying internationally. There is a clear preference for Southeast Asia, so the challenge faced is to bring back travel to other markets such as East Asia, which was a previous top destination.”
“The results also show the importance of health and safety measures, which will need to be in place to increase the confidence in traveling internationally from China.”
While Chinese travelers show confidence in flying again, 35% of those surveyed claimed that they would be less likely to travel by air, post-pandemic. They were principally concerned over health, hygiene and safety.
Almost all of the respondents (96%) support the mandatory requirement to wear a face mask when travelling by air. And over 85% support the introduction of health passports as a prerequisite to flying, and the use of apps that promote touchless travel.
When choosing an airline, respondents placed importance on mandatory mask wearing (66%), improved cleaning processes in place (65%) and proof of negative pre-departure COVID-19 test (62%).
Chinese travelers were divided when it came to the time spent at the airport. 53% of travelers claimed they will reduce the amount of time they spend at airports, compared to 21% who will look to increase their time at the airport as they feel safer with the COVID-19 safety measures in place.
The survey was carried out by independent market intelligence firm AudienceNet on behalf of Cirium. The firm interviewed over 2,060 adults in mainland China between August 30 and September 8, 2021. The margin of error in the reported data did not exceed +/-3% at the 95% confidence level.
Click here to read the full China Cirium Traveler Intelligence Report.
Additional insights on air travel in the full report include:
- The importance of flying on modern aircraft
- Future use of airport lounges
- Cabin class preferences
- Top destinations outside of mainland China
Ends
For further information please follow Cirium updates on WeChat or visit www.cirium.com.
About Cirium
Cirium brings together powerful data and analytics to keep the world moving. Delivering insight, built from decades of experience in the sector, enabling travel companies, aircraft manufacturers, airports, airlines and financial institutions, among others, to make logical and informed decisions which shape the future of travel, growing revenues and enhancing customer experiences. Cirium is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. The shares of RELX PLC are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211020005941/en/
Contact information
For media enquiries please contact:
June Lee (APAC) / Rachel Humphries (Global)
media@cirium.com
Mindy Wang (China) at Dan Communications
shumei.wang@cirium.com
Kyoko Ishida (Japan) at Train Tracks
cirium@traintracks.jp
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Tigo Energy and Weco Certify MLPE-Inverter Compatibility to Simplify PV System Design16.1.2026 07:00:00 EET | Press release
Tigo Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: TYGO) (“Tigo” or “Company”), a leading provider of intelligent solar and energy software solutions, today announced the Company has signed a certificate of compatibility with Weco S.r.l., documenting the compatibility between Tigo Flex MLPE products and hybrid solar inverters from Weco. The certification covers certain single-phase and three-phase Weco products and members of the Tigo TS4-A and TS4-X product families, when properly designed and installed. Together, these products are designed to deliver high-quality, enhanced value through a system that generates and manages solar energy more efficiently and delivers the features residential energy customers demand. “The compatibility between our inverter solutions and Tigo optimizers represents a significant step forward for the entire industry, and confirms our commitment to simplifying the work of solar professionals,” said Federico Cusumano, R&D manager at Weco S.r.l. “Thanks to this certification, design
Binarly to Unveil “Broken Trust” Research: Firmware Bypass Chains, BMC Persistence, and EDR Evasion16.1.2026 00:04:00 EET | Press release
Binarly, the industry leader in software and firmware supply-chain security, today announced an upcoming DistrictCon presentation “Broken Trust: Firmware Bypass Chains, BMC Persistence, and EDR Evasion.” The session will detail how firmware-level attack chains observed in shipped enterprise devices can effectively undermine modern endpoint defenses, enabling stealthy compromise and long-lived persistence. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260115834965/en/ Binarly Unveils Broken Trust Research: Firmware Bypass, BMC Persistence In this presentation, the Binarly REsearch team will dismantle the assumption of hardware trust by presenting multiple real-world firmware bypass chains. Alex Matrosov and Fabio Pagani will provide a deep dive into the specific vulnerability classes and exploitation primitives that make these attacks reliable in practice. The team will also deliver a live demonstration compromising a fully
World Economic Forum and Salesforce Empower Global Leaders With First-of-its-Kind Agentic Assistant for the 2026 Annual Meeting in Davos15.1.2026 20:06:00 EET | Press release
Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the world’s #1 CRM, today announced the activation of the World Economic Forum’s institutional knowledge powered by Agentforce 360 to support over 3,000 of the world’s most influential leaders at the 2026 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. The Forum has launched a new proactive, high-precision concierge app, “EVA,” built on the Agentforce 360 Platform, Salesforce’s agentic platform. EVA will empower attendees to move beyond traditional information access, with an AI agent that doesn’t just answer questions, but can reason, prioritize, and act on a leader’s behalf for the 2026 Annual Meeting. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260115571119/en/ Scheduled for January 19–23 in Davos, Switzerland, this year’s event is set to be the largest meeting in the organization's history. With over 450 high-impact sessions and thousands of specialized interactions, the gap between available insight and
Coolbrook Named on the 2026 Global Cleantech 10015.1.2026 19:14:00 EET | Press release
Coolbrook, a transformational technology and engineering company on a mission to decarbonise major industrial sectors like petrochemicals and chemicals, iron and steel, aluminium, and cement, has been named on Cleantech Group’s 2026 Global Cleantech 100. This annual list recognizes companies poised to deliver market-ready solutions that advance a cleaner, more resilient global future. The report highlights innovators addressing some of the world’s most urgent environmental and infrastructure challenges. The complimentary report introduces you to innovators advancing groundbreaking technologies and business models to enable us to act on the ever-increasing climate and environmental crisis. Following a 2025 marked by geopolitical volatility and shifting economic signals, the global cleantech ecosystem enters 2026 with slightly greater certainty - yet heightened competitive pressure. Growth is concentrating around two dominant themes: AI infrastructure and critical minerals. “The 2026 Glo
Frasca to Supply Four New Flight Training Devices to Global Medical Response15.1.2026 17:05:00 EET | Press release
Frasca International, Inc., a FlightSafety International company, today announced it has signed a contract with Global Medical Response (GMR) to supply four new Level 7 Flight Training Devices (FTDs). The new devices include an Airbus EC135, a Pilatus PC-12, a Beechcraft C90, and a Beechcraft B200. Each FTD will feature Frasca's unique motion system to provide enhanced realism in training. The devices will be installed at GMR’s new training facility currently under construction in Denton, Texas. Frasca has supported GMR’s pilot training efforts for nearly two decades, beginning with the delivery of their first device in 2005 for Air Evac Lifeteam, a GMR company. Since then, Frasca simulators have played a central role in preparing GMR’s flight crews for the complex and high-stakes environments they encounter in emergency medical operations. With the delivery of these new devices, GMR will operate a total of 15 Frasca simulators, including seven Level 7 FTDs and eight Helicopter Trainin
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom