More than 21,000 passengers left Karamay, an oil city in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, during the 40 days' chunyun, the travel frenzy surrounding Spring Festival, the Karamay Daily reported on March 25.

The number increased by 125.33 percent compared with last year, which was a new growth record.

The surge of the passenger volume was in part because new direct flights to Beijing and Chengdu in Sichuan province opened in 2015, providing great convenience to residents in Karamay and neighboring cities. In addition, Air China added two more flights from Karamay to Beijing every week during the chunyun period, and most flights were run by medium-sized airbuses such as B738s that have more than 150 seats each, explained the Karamay traffic authority.

Edited by Peter Nordlinger