Witness the changes of the times through Spring Festival travel rush data and feel the speed and development vitality of ＂flow＂

CCTV News:On January 14th, 2025, Spring Festival travel rush officially opened. This year, Spring Festival travel rush lasts for 40 days and ends on February 22nd. According to the forecast of relevant departments, the cross-regional mobility of Spring Festival travel rush will reach 9 billion passengers this year, and the passenger traffic of railways and civil aviation is expected to exceed 510 million passengers and 90 million passengers respectively. From the perspective of travel structure, self-driving travel is expected to reach 7.2 billion person-times, accounting for nearly 80% of the cross-regional mobility of the whole society, and the traffic volume of expressways may reach a record high in a single day.

Every year, we focus on Spring Festival travel rush, not only paying attention to a reunion journey, but also witnessing the changes of the times, feeling the speed of "mobility" and the vitality of development in Spring Festival travel rush as scheduled.

During Spring Festival travel rush, the proportion of self-driving buses in the national highway network was high.

Spring Festival travel rush was officially launched on January 14th, 2025, and the Road Network Monitoring and Emergency Disposal Center of the Ministry of Transport released "Research on the Operation of National Highway Network in Spring Festival travel rush in 2025". It is predicted that the passenger traffic on Spring Festival travel rush Road Network will continue to run at a high level this year, and the proportion of self-driving buses will be relatively high.

It is estimated that during the period of Spring Festival travel rush, the average daily traffic of expressways in China will be about 38.5 million, which is about 0.5% higher than that of Spring Festival travel rush in 2024. The peak traffic in Spring Festival travel rush is expected to appear on the penultimate day of the Spring Festival holiday, that is, February 3rd, the sixth day of the first month. During the eight days of the Spring Festival holiday, families travel home more often, and passenger cars become the mainstream, accounting for more than 98% of passenger cars, among which new energy vehicles continue to grow. It is estimated that the traffic volume of new energy vehicles will account for about 19% of the total traffic volume during Spring Festival travel rush, which is a significant increase compared with the same period in 2024.

In addition, during the period of Spring Festival travel rush, the work flow, student flow and cargo transportation flow were superimposed. In the early and late period of Spring Festival travel rush, the proportion of long-distance trips across provinces and regions to return to work and return to school increased significantly. The flow of people is tidal. Before the holiday, megacities and provincial capitals mainly migrate to neighboring cities and major labor exporting provinces and cities, and after the holiday, they flow in the opposite direction.　

Free passage of passenger cars to toll roads during the Spring Festival holiday.

Spring Festival travel rush lasts for 40 days, with a long time span, a large amount of trips, a wide range, long-distance and short-distance trips intertwined, a variety of travel destinations, and a multi-point distribution of congested and slow-moving sections. During the eight-day Spring Festival holiday, minibuses pass through the national toll roads free of charge.

The Spring Festival holiday lasts for 8 days from January 28th (New Year’s Eve) to February 4th (the seventh day of the first month), and the free passage time for minibuses with 7 seats or less is from 0: 00 on January 28th to 24: 00 on February 4th.

The sections that are expected to be prone to congestion and slow down in Spring Festival travel rush in the early stage include Zhangdong Interchange in Guangdong section of Erguang Expressway to Matoutang Tunnel, Huangnigang Toll Station in Anhui section of Ningluo Expressway to Lindong Reservoir Bridge 2, and Zhangjiaqiao to Caojia Bridge in Jiangsu section of Beijing-Shanghai Expressway; Busy service areas during the Spring Festival include Wuxi Meicun Service Area of Beijing-Shanghai Expressway, Fangmaoshan Service Area of Shanghai-Chengdu Expressway in Jiangsu Province, and Xiasha Service Area of Shanghai-Kunming Expressway in Zhejiang Province. There are Haifeng Toll Station in Hebei Province of Qinbin Expressway, Chenglong Toll Station in Sichuan Province of Beijing-Kunming Expressway and Nanjing Toll Station in Jiangsu Province of Shanghai-Chengdu Expressway in Spring Festival travel rush.　

There are still discounts on air tickets for most routes during peak hours.

Let’s look at civil aviation. At present, Spring Festival ticket sales have reached a peak, and some airline tickets still have discounts.

As of January 13th, during the Spring Festival holiday in 2025 (January 28th to February 4th, 2025), the number of air tickets booked on domestic routes exceeded 6 million, and January 30th was the peak of holiday travel. The number of air tickets booked on inbound and outbound routes exceeded 1.52 million, an increase of about 23% over the same period of last year’s Spring Festival. Popular destinations are Chongqing, Chengdu, Beijing, Harbin, Xi ‘an and other places.

Judging from the ticket price, at present, Guangzhou on January 25th — Chongqing, Beijing — Harbin airlines have a 60% discount ticket for 1,000 yuan. After January 17, the air ticket price increased obviously, and it was higher from January 23 to January 27, and began to drop obviously after January 28.　

In addition, there are relatively sufficient air tickets for mid-holiday travel and post-holiday return, and there is still room for air ticket prices to fall back.

During Spring Festival travel rush, it is estimated that 30 million passengers will be sent by water.

Let’s look at the waterway transportation in Spring Festival travel rush. The reporter learned from the Maritime Safety Administration of the Ministry of Transport that in 2025, Spring Festival travel rush is expected to send 30 million passengers by water, up 3.44% year-on-year. During the period of Spring Festival travel rush, passenger roll-off transportation, water sightseeing and ferry crossing in Qiongzhou Strait will usher in the peak of passenger flow.