WUHAN — The airport in Wuhan, the capital of Central China's Hubei province which was hit hard by the COVID-19 epidemic early last year, handled 87,000 passengers on May 5, a daily record high since operations began in 1995.

During the May Day holiday from May 1 to 5, Wuhan Tianhe International Airport handled 3,003 inbound and outbound flights, carrying 393,000 passengers, said Liu Rui, a marketing manager with the Hubei Airports Group Company.

The number of flights was up 10 percent from the same period in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 epidemic, and the number of passengers was up 6.5 percent, said Liu.

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Kunming, Chengdu, Haikou, and Shenzhen were among the most popular destinations for outbound passengers from Wuhan, said Liu.