CCTV News: On January 14, the 2025 Spring Festival travel rush officially started. This year's Spring Festival travel rush lasts for 40 days and ends on February 22. According to relevant departments, the cross-regional flow of people in the whole society during the Spring Festival travel rush this year will reach 9 billion people, and the passenger volume of railway and civil aviation is expected to exceed 510 million people and 90 million people respectively. Judging from the travel structure, self-driving travel is expected to reach 7.2 billion people, accounting for nearly 80% of the cross-regional personnel flow in the whole society. The daily peak of highway traffic may hit a record high.

Every year we focus on the Spring Festival travel rush, not only focusing on a journey of reunion, but also witnessing the changes of the times and feeling the speed of "flow" and the vitality of development in the Spring Festival travel rush as promised.

The proportion of self-driving passenger buses in the national highway network during the Spring Festival travel rush is high

The 2025 Spring Festival travel rush was officially launched on January 14. The Ministry of Transport's Road Network Monitoring and Emergency Response Center issued the "National Highway Network Operation Analysis and Judgment during the 2025 Spring Festival travel rush". It is expected that the traffic of passenger buses in the Chinese New Year's Day road network will continue to operate at a high level this year, and the proportion of self-driving passenger buses in the Chinese New Year is high.

It is expected that during the Spring Festival travel rush, the average daily flow of expressways nationwide will be about 38.5 million vehicles, an increase of about 0.5% over the same period of the 2024 Spring Festival travel rush. The peak flow rate of the entire Spring Festival travel rush is expected to occur on the penultimate day of the Spring Festival holiday, which is February 3rd, the sixth day of the first lunar month. During the eight days of the Spring Festival holiday, the whole family returned home and traveled a lot, and the self-driving of small passenger cars became the mainstream, accounting for more than 98% of passenger cars, among which new energy vehicles continued to grow. It is expected that the flow of new energy vehicles during the Spring Festival travel rush will account for about 19% of the daily average of the total flow, a significant increase from the same period in 2024.

In addition, during the Spring Festival travel rush, the flow of work, student flow and cargo transportation flow superimposed. In the early and later stages of the Spring Festival travel rush, the proportion of long-distance travel between provinces and regions that returned to home and work and school increased significantly compared with usual. The flow of people is characterized by tidal characteristics. Before the festival, megacities and provincial capitals mainly migrate to surrounding cities and major labor export provinces and cities, and after the festival, it flows in reverse.

Small passenger cars free toll roads during the Spring Festival holiday

The Spring Festival travel period lasts for 40 days, with a long time span, a large total number of trips and a wide range, long-distance and medium- and short-distance trips intertwined, with diverse travel destinations and congested and slow-moving sections distributed in multiple points. During the Spring Festival holiday, passenger cars will free access to toll roads nationwide.

The Spring Festival holiday will last for 8 days from January 28 (New Year's Eve) to February 4 (the seventh day of the first lunar month), and the free access time for small passenger cars with 7 seats and below is from 0:00 on January 28 to 24:00 on February 4.

The sections of roads that are expected to be prone to congestion and slow traffic during the early Spring Festival travel period include Zhangdong Interchange to Matoutang Tunnel on the Guangdong section of Erguang Expressway, Huangnigang Toll Station on the Anhui section of Ningluo Expressway to Lindong Reservoir Bridge 2, and Zhangjiaqiao to Caojiaqiao on the Jiangsu section of Beijing-Shanghai Expressway; the more 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. The toll stations that are prone to congestion and slow traffic during the later period of the Spring Festival travel rush include the Haifeng Toll Station of Qinbin Expressway in Hebei Province, the Jackie Chan Toll Station of Beijing-Kunming Expressway in Sichuan Province, and the Nanjing Toll Station of Shanghai-Chengdu Expressway in Jiangsu Province.

Air ticket booking has entered its peak, and air tickets on some routes are still discounted

Look at the civil aviation aspect, now air ticket sales for the Spring Festival have reached their peak, and air tickets on some routes are still discounted.

As of January 13, the 2025 Spring Festival holiday (from January 28 to February 4, 2025), the number of domestic air ticket bookings exceeded 6 million, and January 30 was a small peak of holiday travel; the number of air ticket bookings exceeded 1.52 million, an increase of about 23% over the same period last year's Spring Festival. Popular destinations are Chongqing, Chengdu, Beijing, Harbin, Xi'an and other places.

In terms of air ticket prices, there are currently 30% off tickets for the Guangzhou-Chongqing and Beijing-Harbin routes on January 25. Air ticket prices rose significantly after January 17, with prices higher from January 23 to 27, and began to fall significantly after the 28th.

In addition, there are relatively sufficient air tickets for traveling during the festival and returning after the festival, and there is still a lot of room for air ticket prices to fall.

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

Let’s look at the water transportation situation during the Spring Festival travel rush. The reporter learned from the Maritime Bureau of the Ministry of Transport that in the 2025 Spring Festival travel rush, it is expected that 30 million passengers will be sent by water, an increase of 3.44% year-on-year. During the Spring Festival travel rush, passenger rolling transportation, water sightseeing and ferry transportation in Qiongzhou Strait will usher in a peak in passenger flow.