Report, photo copyright by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
With the May Day holiday approaching in mainland China, many tourists planning to travel abroad are complaining on social media about the widespread cancellations of flights to Southeast Asia. It is understood that this is due to the recent surge in international oil prices caused by the Middle East conflict.
Recently, many Chinese netizens posted on social media that their flights to Southeast Asia and Australia during and around the May Day holiday were cancelled. One netizen wrote, "My AirAsia ticket from Shanghai to Bangkok for May Day was cancelled." Another said, "My flight to Vietnam for May Day was cancelled. I carefully selected the flight two months in advance so I wouldn't have to take time off work, and it was cancelled without warning. Although I can get a full refund, direct flights during the same period have already skyrocketed to 5,000 RMB." Another wrote, "My tickets from May 1st to 5th were all cancelled, and my hotel is already booked. What am I going to do?" Yet another wrote, "My flight to Kuala Lumpur, originally scheduled for the early morning of the 3rd, was suddenly cancelled and rescheduled to 3.30 am on May 4th. Then the return flight on the same airline is scheduled for 4.30 am. It's outrageous to fly back before even clearing customs..."
Image : Screenshot from the internet
According to multiple mainland media reports, data from the "Flight Manager" platform shows that from 1 to 12 April 2026, several routes from China to Southeast Asia have had all flights cancelled, including Xianyang-Phuket, Chongqing-Phuket, Yantai-Suvarnabhumi, Ordos-Vientiane, Pudong-Tawau, Xiamen-Vientiane, Nanjing-Techo, and Hohhot-Suvarnabhumi.
Regarding flights from China to Australia, the cancellation rate for Guangzhou-Darwin flights is 83.3%, Hangzhou-Auckland flights is 57.1%, and Wuhan-Sydney flights is 50%.
On 7 April 2026, Air China issued a notice canceling its Chengdu Tianfu-KLIA flights from that day until 30 June 2026.
AirAsia X recently announced that it will suspend its Don Mueang-Pudong route from 17 April 2026 until the end of the season.
Thai AirAsia has suspended its Xi'an Xianyang-Don Mueang flight service after 11 May 2026.
On 11 April 2026, Cathay Pacific announced that due to the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, which have negatively impacted aviation fuel prices, it will consolidate a small number of passenger flights operating between 16 May 2026 and 30 June 2026 to alleviate some of the cost pressure. HK Express will also consolidate a small number of flights during the same period.
In addition, while Chinese airlines such as Spring Airlines, China Eastern and China Southern Airlines have not issued overall flight cancellation announcements, they have also cancelled some flights, including those to Southeast Asia during the May Day holiday, through system cancellations, customer service notifications, and agent notifications.
The report states that this concentrated flight adjustment is not a temporary measure by individual airlines, but rather a collective response from the industry to the surge in global aviation fuel prices and increased cost pressures.
