China’s transport ministry lowers Lunar New Year travel forecasts

Oil

China’s transport ministry have slashed their forecasted travel volumes across the 40-day Lunar New Year period by 20% y-o-y to around 1.15 billion journeys (or 28.8 million per day), following calls from the Chinese government to cancel trips home for the celebration amidst escalating cases of Covid-19, Argus reports. Tightened quarantine measures and health checks have been implemented to help deter travel as the country experiences its worst virus outbreak in 10 months. This is set to dampen transport fuel demand, which is usually at its peak during this period, with over 52% of scheduled daily flights already cancelled.