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This is NEWS plus Special English. I'm Marc Cavigli here in Beijing.
In a related development, Chinese airlines have joined forces to handle the seasonal surge of passengers during the Spring Festival transport.
The State-owned Air China, China's flag carrier, has added about 3,000 extra flights, mostly domestic, during the month-long rush period.
This year's holiday travel season is expected to see 42 million air trips.
Chinese tradition holds that people should return home to spend the holiday with the family. This creates an annual travel rush that is the world's largest recurrent human migration.
As many as 170,000 people fly Air China each day during the busiest days.
Passengers who book tickets through the company's website, Smartphone applications, or e-commerce platforms such as Taobao.com receive bigger discounts than they could get from ticket agencies. This policy has encouraged passengers to book their tickets early.
Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines plans to add about 5,000 flights during the travel rush in a bid to meet demand.
For passengers who fail to buy a direct train or air ticket home, the company provides connection services such as "air plus train" or "air plus long-distance bus" to facilitate their journeys.
About 60,000 people benefited from this policy last year. The company provides up to 1,400 passengers with free train tickets every day during this year's travel rush.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China says Chinese airlines provide at least 1.1 million seats every day to meet the travel peak.
