The summer holiday season started with a bang for China’s aviation sector, with passenger traffic at the country’s airports reaching almost 9 million — about the population of Switzerland — in the first five days of July.

Free from grueling Covid restrictions at last, Chinese travelers are seizing the moment. July 1-5 passenger traffic at airports was 14% higher than in the same period in 2019, before the Covid crisis, data from travel platform Trip.com Group Ltd. show.

Expensive airfares aren’t a deterrent either. The average price for domestic tickets was 21% higher on average than at the start of July four years ago, and 22% higher for international routes, according to Trip.com.

It’s welcome news for the country’s airlines, which are bringing back thousands of flights and riding high on the stock markets. The so-called Big Three of Air China Ltd., China Southern Airlines Co. and China Eastern Airlines Corp. all logged their biggest gains in more than a year on Monday last week — the first trading day of the month — with each jumping more than 6% in Hong Kong. Other travel-related stocks also soared, including Changbai Mountain Tourism Co., which rose the 10% limit, and BTG Hotels Group Co., up 7.3%.