On January 14, this year’s Spring Festival travel rush (known as “Chunyun”) officially began. Already, ferry traffic across the Qiongzhou Strait is becoming increasingly busy. By 7 p.m. on that day, 53,400 passengers and 15,300 vehicles had already safely crossed the straits.

During this year's Chunyun (January 14th-February 22nd), two newly introduced large capacity RoRo (roll-on roll-off) NEV Ferries—the "Lüyuan No. 1" and "Lüyuan No. 2" have been fully put into operation. Each boat can transport about 160 new energy vehicles. Setting new records, passenger volume across the Qiongzhou Strait during this year’s Chunyun is expected to exceed the 5 million, and the vehicle volume is expected to reach 1.15 million. During this critical season, the Haikou Maritime Safety Administration will continue to strengthen safety supervision and service guarantee measures to ensure the safety and smoothness of Qiongzhou Straits crossings.

The Qiongzhou Straits' largest new energy vehicle transportation ship is being putting into operation. (Photo by Hainan Strait Shipping Company)

On the first day of the Spring Festival travel rush, the daily passenger throughput of Haikou Meilan International Airport exceeded 90,000 people. In order to fully meet travel demands, during this year’s Chunyun, Meilan Airport is working together with 12 airlines to add around 1,800 flights between Haikou and a number of popular cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Harbin, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Wuhan.

Starting from January 14th (the first day of this year’s Chunyun), the check-in time for domestic passenger flights operating at Terminal 1 of Meilan airport was adjusted from 40 minutes before the flight departure to 35 minutes before the departure, so that passengers who have been delayed have more of a chance make their flights.

Meilan Airport reminds travelers that there will be a large volume of passengers during the Spring Festival travel season. Travelers should purchase round trip tickets well in advance of planned travel dates and arrive at the airport no less than three hours before their flights are scheduled to depart. If passengers have needs for duty-free shopping or picking up duty-free goods, they should allow more time to avoid delays. If passengers have the needs of tax -free shopping or tax rebate needs, they should plan extra time before boarding to avoid missing their flights. For additional travel information, please call the Haikou Meilan International Airport 24-Hour Customer Service Hotline at 0898-966114.

On the first day of this year’s Chunyun, passengers are queuing up to check in. (Photo by hinews)