Shanghai begins 35-minute cut-off time for domestic travelers

Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport shortened the cut-off time for domestic flights to 35 minutes or less, effective from Friday (Jan 10), an attempt of the East China cosmopolis to further enhance passengers' traveling experience, according to the Shanghai Airport (Group) Co.

The cut-off time is the last moment passengers can check in and check their luggage for a particular flight. Previously, the cut-off time for domestic flights was 40 minutes or less.

Adopting measures including unified operating standards and digital applications, the airport managed to make this optimization, which is hoped to better serve passengers during the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush, which starts on Jan 14 and lasts until Feb 22.

Gong Yiting, a director with aviation data and solutions provider VariFlight said the move is aligned with the central government's guideline on boosting consumption.

"As a quite busy airport, Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport's reduction in cut-off time resulted from effective collaboration with airliners, and the move would save business travelers' time at the airport and encourage passengers on business trips to travel more," explained Gong.

Setting flight cut-off time is to ensure that airports and airliners have sufficient time to complete more than 10 tasks before flight take-off, and ensure the safety and punctuality of the flight.

"The reduction in cut-off time will save passengers' time during their trips and create a competitive edge for Chinese civil aviation," said Lin Zhijie, an aviation industry analyst.

According to Lin, who is also a columnist of China's civil aviation website carnoc.com, the Shanghai Airport (Group) has shortened domestic flight cut-off time from 45 minutes to 40 minutes, and now further reduced it to 35 minutes.

"What makes it possible is the continuous improvement in efficiency and procedure optimization. There are loads of work to do to ensure passengers board smoothly and their luggage gets timely transportation between the cut-off time and departure," Lin explained.

In specific, cut-off time for domestic flights operated by China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines and China United Airlines became 35 minutes at the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport since Friday, and 30 minutes for passengers without checked baggage. Cut-off time of Spring Airlines was 30 minutes, and that of other airlines was 35 minutes.

At the Shanghai Pudong International Airport, cut-off time for domestic flights operated by China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, China Southern Airlines and China United Airlines was 40 minutes, and 45 minutes for other airlines.

Prior to Friday's upgrade, flights to destinations beyond the Chinese mainland have experienced across the-board cut-off time reduction at Shanghai's two airports since July 1, 2024, with that of departure from the Shanghai Pudong International Airport slashed to 60 minutes (with the exception of Ethiopian Airlines at 90 minutes), and within 45 minutes of the Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.

Shanghai's two airports saw record passenger flow in 2024 by handling more than 124 million passenger trips, a growth of 29 percent year-on-year. Over 803,000 flights took off or landed at the two airports, up 15 percent year-on-year, according to the Shanghai Airport (Group).