HAIKOU /China/, September 29. /TASS/. Meilan International Airport in Haikou (the administrative center of Hainan province, South China) is expected to serve over 220 thousand passengers during during the holidays from October 1 to 7 on the occasion of China's National Day. This was reported by The Paper news portal.

The airport's passenger traffic increased to 30,000 people a day amid an improved epidemiological situation in the province, where a COVID-19 outbreak had been previously recorded, the article noted.

According to The Paper, Meilan Airport will have a total of 2,099 flights during the week-long holiday, with a seven-day total of over 220,000 passengers. The peak travel will fall on October 1, 6 and 7.

China's National Day kicks off a week-long holiday called "Golden Week," a time when locals travel to their ancestral homeland as well as around the country. The PRC's transportation system is particularly stressed during the holidays: Before the 2019 pandemic, Chinese residents made 782 million trips across the country in a week. Last year, that number reached 515 million. This year, the number of trips is projected to reach or slightly exceed last year's figure.

An outbreak of COVID-19 was reported in Hainan province in August. Since August 1, the total number of cases in the region exceeded 20.7 thousand people, another 12.1 thousand had it asymptomatic.