China Flight Data Monitoring Report (Dec 1–7, 2025): Weekly Trends and RPK Performance

Weekly report on mainland China civil aviation for December 1–7, 2025, covering flight volume, passenger traffic, aircraft utilization, domestic fares, RASK, major airports, and airline operations, based on VariFlight DataWorks aviation data.

Period: 1-7, December, 2025
Data Source: VariFlight

Passenger Transport Overview

During the week of December 1–7, 2025, China’s civil aviation market saw stable passenger demand.

A total of 96,000 passenger flights were operated nationwide, averaging 13,800 flights per day. This represented a 1 percent decrease compared with the previous week. Flight volume increased 3 percent year-on-year and 6 percent compared with 2019.

Total passenger volume reached 13.555 million for the week, averaging 1.936 million per day. Passenger numbers fell 3 percent week-on-week, but increased 7 percent compared with 2024 and 15 percent compared with 2019.

The flight completion rate was 81.4 percent, down 1 percentage point from last week. The average load factor was 83.6 percent, also decreasing by 1 percentage point week-on-week.

Domestic Fare and RASK Overview

The average all-inclusive domestic airfare was RMB 716.4, down 1 percent week-on-week and 4 percent compared with 2024.

The domestic revenue per available seat kilometer (RASK) was RMB 0.411, a 2 percent decline from the previous week and 3 percent lower than last year.

Aircraft Utilization

From December 1–7, 2025, domestic aircraft recorded an average utilization of 8.81 hours per day, a decrease of 1.60 percentage points week-on-week.

Wide-body aircraft averaged 7.33 hours per day, down 1.71 percentage points.
Narrow-body aircraft averaged 9.04 hours per day, down 1.56 percentage points.

Major Airport Passenger Traffic

Guangzhou, Shanghai Pudong, and Beijing Capital handled the highest passenger volumes this week.

Among airports with annual passenger traffic above ten million, Urumqi, Changchun, and Harbin recorded slight week-on-week increases. Most other major airports showed varying degrees of decline. Guiyang decreased 8 percent, Kunming decreased 7 percent, and Qingdao decreased 6 percent.

Compared with last year, Shijiazhuang increased 25 percent, Urumqi grew 18 percent, and Nanning rose 16 percent, leading year-on-year growth.

Airline Flight Volume

China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Air China operated the highest number of flights this week.

Among the top 20 airlines, Loong Air decreased 12 percent week-on-week, Xiamen Airlines decreased 7 percent, and Shandong Airlines decreased 3 percent.

Year-on-year growth was led by Tibet Airlines at 14 percent, Shandong Airlines at 13 percent, and Spring Airlines at 12 percent.

About VariFlight DataWorks

DataWorks, Sub-brand of VariFlight  provides aviation data, flight operations information, and civil aviation reporting for mainland China and global markets.

Founded in 2005, VariFlight operates one of the most complete flight data networks in China. The system covers more than 1,200 airlines and 10,000 airports, supported by a nationwide ADS-B network, airport operational data, multi-source verification, and high-frequency event monitoring.

With long-term data accumulation and localized infrastructure, VariFlight delivers accurate and timely datasets used in analytics, operational platforms, digital travel applications, financial services, and AI systems.

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