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After handling a record number of Spring Festival passengers so far, China's transport sector is bracing itself for another travel peak. The Ministry of Railways said that from February 1 to 8, it had transported a record 27.83 million passengers, 2.9 percent more than the same period last year. The second peak will be from February 17 to 19 and involve 4.1 million people per day, according to the ministry. Most will be students and migrant workers. To guarantee that trains are safe, punctual and comfortable, the ministry published the Spring Festival timetable earlier than usual. From February 1 to 8, more than 1,600 temporary trains went into operation between big cities such as Beijing, Chengdu, GuangZhou and Shanghai, according to the ministry. Stations at Wuchang and Hankou in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province, dealt with more than 60,000 passengers on Thursday. The rail sector in Chengdu in Sichuan Province handled 320,000 travellers on the same day. "The passenger flow is quite heavy at present. We added 50 temporary trains today," said Qi Wenchao, head of Chengdu Railway Bureau. To ease the strain, railway authorities set up two sites at Macheng in Hubei Province and Huainan in Anhui Province to evaluate the transport capacity of the trains headed for Beijing and to sell temporary tickets. China's civil airlines handled more than 1.76 million passengers during the holiday, up 9.5 percent over the previous year. According to the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), during the "golden week," 16,901 flights were put into service with an average occupancy rate of 65 per cent, up 3.7 percentage points year-on-year. Compared with previous years, this year's passenger peak has lasted longer with figures indicating that during the fortnight prior to the holiday period, the number of daily passengers reached 256,000, up 15.6 percent year-on-year. During the first three days of the holiday, usually a quiet travel period, the occupancy rate of flights from cities like Guangzhou, Urumqi and Hefei topped 70 percent. During the entire holiday period, more than 200 extra flights a day were added. The Meilan Airport in South China's Hainan Province handled a record 36,000 passengers on Wednesday, the fifth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year.