When the Spring Festival "big test" is unveiled, what kind of answers will the transportation system hand over?

On January 15, Liu He, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council, inspected the Spring Festival work in Beijing. He stressed: The Spring Festival festival has a bearing on the vital interests of the broad masses of the people and is the opening examination of the transportation system. Transportation departments and transport enterprises at all levels should earnestly implement the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, unswervingly do a good job in the prevention and control of the Epidemic during the Spring Festival, effectively strengthen safe production and emergency management, focus on optimizing travel services, ensure the health and safety of passenger travel, and ensure the smooth holding of the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

The 2022 Spring Festival begins on January 17 and ends on February 25 for 40 days. The Ministry of Transport expects to send 1.18 billion passengers nationwide during the Spring Festival this year, with an average of 29.5 million passengers per day, an increase of 35.6% over 2021, a decrease of 20.3% over 2020, and a decrease of 60.4% over 2019. The southwest region of Sichuan and Chongqing has become the main destination for spring transport passengers. Affected by the ice and snow heat of the Winter Olympics, the travel demand in the northeast region has increased significantly.

Faced with the dual challenge of the importation of the delta and Omikejong strains into the epidemic, the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council recently held a press conference on the relevant situation of epidemic prevention work during the Spring Festival. Zhu Wenzhong, deputy director of the Passenger Transport Department of the State Railway Group, and Han Guangzu, director of the Flight Standards Department of the Civil Aviation Administration, said that while fully arranging the transport capacity, strict prevention and control measures, improving the emergency plan, and resolutely implementing the general strategy of "external prevention of import and internal prevention of rebound". "Do a good job in the two aspects of 'control' and 'communication', and never use one-size-fits-all, layer-by-layer and other means to achieve epidemic prevention effects." Zhou Min, deputy director of the Emergency Office of the Ministry of Transport, stressed.

Capacity is more on-demand

On January 18, the reporter learned from the Spring Festival work class of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council that on the second day of the Spring Festival, the whole country is expected to send 25.305 million passengers. Among them, railways are expected to send 5.15 million passengers, 19 million passengers on highways, 355,000 passengers on waterways and 800,000 passengers in civil aviation. The national highway is expected to flow 28.4741 million vehicles.

In order to meet the passenger demand of hot spots and hot routes during the Spring Festival, the Civil Aviation Administration of China encourages airlines to flexibly allocate capacity and make overall arrangements for overtime and temporary flights. As of January 15, nearly 600,000 domestic scheduled passenger flights have been arranged during the Spring Festival, and more than 20,000 overtime flights on domestic routes have been approved on this basis. A number of airlines plan to increase the capacity of key areas of the Spring Festival and allocate wide-body aircraft to fly on popular routes.

China Southern Airlines Group expects to perform about 110,000 Spring Festival flights, with an average daily flight volume of more than 2,700 flights and an increase of about 11,023 flights, mainly covering Guangzhou-Shenzhen to southwest and central, northeast to Hainan and other directions. Juneyao Airlines plans to implement 15,000 flights and invest all 88 aircraft to strengthen the capacity of major hubs such as Shanghai and Nanjing. According to the existing reservation data, in the first week of the Spring Festival, juneyao Airlines sent 30% of passengers at Shanghai Hongqiao and Pudong airports year-on-year, and nearly 40% year-on-year in Nanjing. China Eastern Airlines will increase capacity in the Spring Festival hotspots such as East China, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Hainan, Southwest China and Northeast China, with special attention to Hainan, South China and Yunnan. Among them, it will increase investment in the Boao market in Hainan and plan to add 1436 new flights in Yunnan and South China, mainly involving Guangzhou-Qingdao, Kunming-Chengdu Tianfu, Shanghai Pudong-Beihai and other routes. Air China has encrypted flights from the west to south China, and increased investment in traditional Spring Festival hotspot routes such as northeast china and west.

The 21st Century Business Herald reporter noted that the State Railway Group did not make predictions on the scale of the railway Spring Festival this year as in previous years, Zhu Wenzhong said that the basic travel needs such as the flow of students, migrant workers, and visiting relatives in the railway Spring Festival still maintain a certain scale, but due to the impact of the epidemic and the guidance of local prevention and control policies, there is great uncertainty and variability in passenger travel. Therefore, the State Railway Group will dynamically arrange the train according to the changes in passenger flow in accordance with the principle of "appropriate arrangement, emergency preparedness, accurate matching, and echelon delivery". "Overall, the daily supply capacity of spring transport seats can reach about 10.5 million, an increase of 10% over 2019." Zhu Wenzhong said.

The person who did not want to be named by the State Railway Group explained to reporters that the current epidemic prevention policies and booking data feedback in various places may change the passenger traffic of this year's Spring Festival at any time. It is only necessary to properly guarantee the peak capacity, implement the "one map a day" more accurately according to the changes in passenger flow and the pre-sale of tickets, dynamically arrange the delivery of transport capacity and the operation of passenger cars, and fully meet the dual needs of ensuring passenger travel and epidemic prevention and control. If there is an epidemic in a local area, the transportation organization will be quickly adjusted, and passenger trains in the epidemic-related areas will be suspended and reduced to reduce the flow of people.

In fact, not only railways and civil aviation have strengthened on-demand arrangements this year, but also the optimization of passenger transportation allocation on highways and ferries is also a key issue for the transportation sector. The Ministry of Transport said that it will scientifically arrange the frequency plan, increase the capacity investment and emergency scheduling in key areas such as passenger transport hub stations, parks, scenic spots, etc., actively develop flexible and small-batch shuttle passenger customized services, strengthen the connection between trunk line transportation and urban transportation, and organize passenger intermodal transportation, especially the evacuation of passengers arriving at night, avoid passenger detention, and effectively meet the travel needs of the masses.

A number of emergency measures have been fully implemented

Recently, the national epidemic prevention situation is grim, and the pressure of safety emergency support is relatively large. How to implement precise traffic control measures while not affecting people's return home for the New Year and traveling is a major challenge.

Zhou Min said that during the Spring Festival, some scientific and accurate transportation control measures will be taken, and once there is a local outbreak of the epidemic, on the one hand, it will decisively cut off inter-provincial and inter-city road passenger transport services. Inter-provincial and intercity road passenger shuttles and chartered buses in medium- and high-risk areas, as well as cross-city passenger services such as buses, cruise taxis, online ride-hailing cars, and hitchhiking, are all suspended. Second, strengthen the epidemic prevention management of urban passenger transport. Reduce the risk of epidemic transmission by means of station dumping, detour, interval operation, etc. In addition, we will also scientifically set up epidemic prevention checkpoints and strictly implement the requirements for prevention and control of key links. Including the disinfection and ventilation of transportation tools and working environments, the physical isolation of the driving area and passenger area of vehicles transported by close contacts and nucleic acid sampling, the equipping of protective articles for drivers and passengers, the timely replacement of a full set of protective articles after transfer, and the strict disinfection of vehicles.

The civil aviation department requires airlines to closely track the epidemic situation in some parts of the country, cooperate with the prevention and control requirements to do a good job in ticket refund and change services, and strengthen the docking and cooperation between airports and local Spring Festival institutions to ensure the smooth connection of arriving and departing passenger traffic. At the same time, we will improve the service work of passengers under abnormal flight conditions.

In addition to strictly implementing prevention and control work such as ventilation and disinfection, strengthening passenger health monitoring, and preparing emergency medical incidents on board, Air China advocates "paperless" and "contactless" travel services, and effectively reduces regional personnel gatherings through self-service check-in, self-service baggage check-in, snake arrays, and early opening of counters. On the one hand, China Eastern Airlines should do its best to prevent all staff to wear masks, gloves, goggles and other protective equipment; on the other hand, it should be checked before boarding the passengers' health codes, nucleic acid certificates and other information. Focusing on the travel problems of transit passengers, we will use the transit business support platform to strengthen the linkage and communication with the departure station, issue epidemic policy tips on a daily basis, and work with the departure station to check passengers' documents, nucleic acids and health codes. In order to further enhance passengers' confidence in traveling with Juneyao Airlines, Juneyao Airlines has achieved the new crown vaccine to strengthen the immunization coverage of all employees.

Zhu Wenzhong said that once there are epidemic-related passengers on the train, they will immediately arrange the epidemic-related passengers in the isolation seat of the train, conduct isolation observation, and wear N95 masks. And immediately report to the local prevention and control department, arrange for passengers involved in the epidemic to get off at the front station, and transfer them to the local prevention and control department. The environment in which the epidemic-related passengers are located will also be closed to control the movement of people. In addition, the passenger information of the carriage where the epidemic-related passengers are located is pushed to the national epidemic prevention and control management platform to assist the local prevention and control departments to take relevant control measures. Finally, the environment of the affected passengers will be disinfected.

Railway officials also said that they would increase the number of self-service equipment at the station, and recommended using the Internet to order meals, train WeChat to order meals, and deliver meals to the seats of the carriages. By vigorously promoting contactless self-service, the risk of cross-infection of the epidemic is minimized and a healthy travel environment is created.

In addition, combined with the characteristics of frequent low-temperature rain, snow and freezing weather during the Spring Festival, various airlines have formulated work plans and emergency plans in advance. For example, Juneyao Airlines completed the investigation of personnel, materials, equipment and emergency plans during the Spring Festival in advance in the ground support link, encrypted the 24-hour customer service hotline schedule of agents in advance, and simultaneously launched the remote personnel support function in different places, so as to prepare for the centralized handling of business by passenger telephone.

While the government and enterprises have strengthened prevention and control measures, people have paid more attention to safety when traveling under the epidemic. According to Ctrip data, as of 12:00 noon on January 17, the demand for car rental travel continued the hot trend of last year. Many users will advance the time of car rental orders to ensure the Spring Festival travel. It can be seen from the data that more than 2 weeks in advance, car rental orders booked during the Spring Festival increased by more than 50% year-on-year. Sanya, Haikou, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou are popular cities for renting a car.

Smooth freight delivery

While ensuring passenger transport, the smooth flow of freight is also crucial. "Multi-pronged efforts to ensure the smooth transportation of materials, ensure the transportation of production and living materials, and also ensure the stability of production and living order." Zhou Min said that the Ministry of Communications will ensure the smooth transportation of emergency materials. Recently, there have been cases in some places where trucks have been persuaded to return without cause and for truck drivers to be quarantined for no reason, and these cases have been coordinated and basically properly resolved by the Ministry of Transportation. He stressed that the control of epidemic prevention and control must not be simplified and one-size-fits-all, it is strictly forbidden to set up epidemic prevention and control checkpoints on the main line of the provincial border of the expressway without authorization, and the county and rural areas must not block or isolate the highway, the national and provincial trunk lines and rural roads without authorization. "It is necessary to implement it layer by layer, rather than increasing the number of layers, and it must not affect the transportation of all kinds of key materials and affect the people's lives." Zhou Min said the Ministry of Transport will also ensure the smooth flow of port transportation.

According to the relevant person in charge of the State Railway Group, during the Spring Festival, the railway department will coordinate the supply of freight capacity, continue to strengthen the transportation of key materials related to the national economy and people's livelihood, such as coal for power generation and heating, grain in the northeast, fertilizer for spring ploughing, and festival materials, make every effort to ensure the transportation of epidemic prevention materials, and strive to ensure that the average daily loading of railways in the country is more than 170,000 cars, to ensure that the 363 direct power supply plants in the country can store coal for more than 15 days, and to ensure that the people are warm through the winter and the stable operation of the national economy.

The Spring Festival is approaching, more New Year goods are flying from overseas, and the air transport market continues to boom. On January 13, the daily cargo volume of China Southern Airlines Guangzhou Cargo Station exceeded 500 tons. Up to now, Dalian Branch of China Southern Airlines Logistics has collected and transported nearly 90 tons of fresh strawberries, and Shenyang Branch has transported nearly 20 tons of Fuxin chicken and duck products. In addition to domestic conventional New Year products, flowers, lobsters, salmon and cherries are all popular goods in recent air transport. From January 1 to 9, China Southern Airlines Logistics Shanghai cargo aircraft flights carried a total of 3,039 tons of cargo, an increase of 56.4% year-on-year.

On January 11, a China Eastern Airlines charter flight full of Afghan imported pine nuts landed at Pudong Airport, with a total of 1,405 pine nuts on board, more than 45 tons. The person in charge of China Eastern Airlines Logistics said that pine nuts are the characteristic agricultural products of Afghanistan, and now a large number of Afghan pine nuts have arrived in Shanghai through the "Pine Nuts Air Corridor", which has driven the trade of agricultural products between China and Argentina. It is reported that from 2021 to the present, China Eastern Airlines Logistics has guaranteed 29 Afghan pine nut charter flights, about 1350 tons.

In addition, because it is not easy to go out, the public is more enthusiastic about buying New Year goods and gifts online during the festival, and heating up the express logistics demand during the festival, and emS, SF, Jingdong Logistics, Yuantong, Debon and other enterprises have announced that "the Spring Festival will not be closed". The State Post Bureau also issued a notice requiring enterprises to adhere to the main tone of "no closing, no network, no backlog" during the Spring Festival, and make every effort to do a good job in online shopping and delivery services for daily necessities. It is hoped that during the Spring Festival, all express delivery companies will arrange operating resources, do a good job in advance of transportation capacity and manpower allocation, and maintain the stability of grass-roots outlets. The State Post Bureau also urged express delivery companies, especially franchised outlets, to settle employees' wages in a timely manner.

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