Red-eye cuts queues

Pudong International Airport has scheduled 20 overnight flights each day as part of a nationwide trial to cope with the Spring Festival travel rush.

China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, China Southern, Hainan Airlines and Urumqi Air are operating flights between 1am and 6am through March 1, the Shanghai Airport Authority said yesterday. Destinations include Harbin, Shenzhen, Fuzhou, Haikou and Urumqi.

Tickets are cheaper than daytime flights and waiting times for security checks and boarding are expected to be lessened. Tickets for a China Eastern flight departing from Pudong at 1:30am on Friday to Shenzhen sold for 420 yuan (US$62.5), compared with over 1,000 yuan for a flight after 9am on the same day.

The airport is offering transport, medical services, shopping and dining for passengers on the overnight flights. Taxis will be waiting and 30 shuttle buses, eight more than normal, will take passengers home. The airport has promised additional shuttle services if cabs and scheduled buses cannot handle demand.

"There were few other passengers in the early morning. It took just seconds to check-in and two minutes to go through the security check," said a passenger on a Monday flight from Shanghai to Fuzhou.