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Domestic flight bookings during Japan Bon holiday at 90% of pre-pandemic levels

Japanese airline companies say domestic flight bookings during the upcoming Bon summer holiday period have recovered to about 90 percent of the pre-pandemic levels.

The figures released by 11 Japanese carriers show that as of Thursday, 3.68 million people reserved domestic flights for the 11-day period from August 10 through 20. The figure was up 20 percent from the same period last year.

The reservations of the two major carriers, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines, combined have reached about 2.7 million. That is about 94 percent of the figure for the Bon holiday in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

International flight bookings for the period have doubled from last year, at about 560,000 passengers. ANA and JAL have received 440,000 bookings, or 67 percent of the figure four years ago.

Airlines say the downgrade in legal categorization of COVID-19 in May has apparently helped to reduce psychological barriers to outings and tours.

Source: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230803_29/