Meituan: Mid-Autumn and National Day flight bookings up 44% year on year

Key points

• Meituan data shows Mid-Autumn and National Day flight bookings rose 44% year on year, with long-haul bookings over 2,000 km up 76% and accounting for more than a quarter of the total.
• Users booking two or more destinations rose 70% year on year, while users linking multiple cities by air and high-speed rail rose 14%.
• September 10-17 was the flight booking peak; nearly 20% of travellers departed the day before Mid-Autumn and over half departed before September 30.
• Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Kunming, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Hangzhou and Nanjing led search and booking rankings, with search growth on Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Guangzhou routes exceeding 45% year on year.
• Shanghai-Urumqi flight bookings rose 235% year on year, while Shanghai-Kunming and Beijing-Kunming bookings rose 91% and 67% respectively.
• Combined-transport transfers offered clear price advantages, with Beijing-Yuncheng air-rail options saving up to 70% and Beijing-Huangshan air-rail options saving over 600 yuan.
• During Mid-Autumn, bookings for overnight 'evening departure, morning arrival' train tickets rose 21% year on year, 2.6 times the overall train-ticket growth rate.
• Meituan has launched multiple air-rail intermodal route options, letting users compare price, duration, transfer intervals and stopover length.