China To Increase International Flights...

International flights departing from cities in China are expected to increase after recent signs of further relaxation of tight restrictions for the past two years.

On Sunday, Air China restarted a route which was suspended for nearly one year, from Chengdu to Kathmandu. The route, which flies once per week, is the second international departure from Chengdu to be reopened after flights to Singapore started earlier with the normalization of epidemic prevention and control.

Hainan Airlines told the Global Times that it will also resume a direct flights from Chongqing, in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, to Rome on June 23. This is the first intercontinental international passenger route from Chongqing since the epidemic.

The Chongqing-Rome flight, the first international route opened by Hainan Airlines in Chongqing, had operated for nearly five years carrying more than 180,000 persons after its maiden flight in 2015. It was suspended due to the impact of the epidemic.

In a bid to curb imported COVID-19 cases, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) launched the "Five One" policy in March of 2020, which stated that airlines of the Chinese mainland could fly just once a week on one route to any country, and foreign airlines could operate just one flight a week to China.

Media reported that, as early as the end of May, three domestic airlines, China Southern Airlines, Air China and Hainan Airlines, have received the quota allocation of new international flights from the CAAC.

Additional inbound and outbound international flights will be gradually announced after reaching an agreement with foreign civil aviation authorities, according to online news outlet Yicai.

China Southern Airlines has obtained new flight quotas to Kyrgyzstan. Flights to Tajikistan and Turkey, which were temporarily suspended after the epidemic, were also reestablished, Yicai reported.

Air China has been allocated a flight quota to Belarus and the United Arab Emirates, after flights were reduced in September 2021.

The Global Times earlier reported that Air China increased the number of weekly flights from New York to Beijing in June.

Qin Gang, the Chinese ambassador to the US, said earlier that the number of weekly flights between China and the US will be increased from 18 to 24.

The recovery in Asia in 2021 has been lagging behind other regions, with international travel at just 7 percent of pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA) .

Although flights in the first quarter of 2022 have risen to 17 percent, the road to recovery is still long. Before the epidemic, international travel within Asia was one of the largest and most important international air travel markets in the world, but it has only recovered to 6 percent of its pre-pandemic level in 2019, IATA said.

Chinese government has been rolling out a comprehensive package of measures to boost the Chinese aviation industry.

On Wednesday, the first batch of pre-allocated subsidies for domestic passenger flights was released with 3.29 billion yuan ($491 million) to support the safety and stability of the civil aviation industry, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said on Friday that it is negotiating with some countries to gradually and steadily increase regular international passenger flights to meet the needs of personnel exchanges.

The remarks came in response to questions at a press conference about whether there will be more international flights in the second half of this year.

Under the premise of ensuring epidemic prevention measures, the orderly arrangement of international flights is conducive for China's economic development and personnel exchanges between China and foreign countries, said Liang Nan, an official from the CAAC. It is also necessary for the sustainable development of the aviation industry, Liang noted.

Liang said that China has maintained regular overseas passenger flights with 54 countries since the epidemic, and the move has "effectively prevented the cross-border spread of the epidemic."

The CAAC has been negotiating with the aviation department of Vietnam and given approval for flights twice a week, up from one flight per week previously, according to industry outlet carnoc.com.

Thai Airways International will resume flights to China on Saturday after Chinese authorities agreed to allow two flights per week from Thailand, according to nationthailand.com on Friday.

Meanwhile, Chinese carriers have also announced new international flights. 

China Southern Airlines said on Thursday that it plans to resume seven international routes from June, and the number of international flights will increase from 36 flights per week to 48 flights and the number of countries will increase from 20 to 27.

China Southern will increase the frequency of flights on the routes from Guangzhou to Yangon and from Guangzhou to Phnom Penh from June, and the route from Guangzhou to Delhi will be resumed as well. 

Hainan Airlines told the Global Times that it will resume direct flights from Chongqing in Southwest China's Sichuan Province to Rome on June 23. This is the first intercontinental international passenger route from Chongqing since the epidemic.

Air China also restarted a route which was suspended for nearly one year from Chengdu to Kathmandu. The flight, which is once per week, is the second international departure from Chengdu to be reopened after flights to Singapore.

In addition to the increase in international flights, the quarantine policy for inbound flights has also been adjusted in many places, further shortening the entry quarantine time.

Currently, the quarantine time for inbound personnel including Nanjing, Hangzhou and Xuzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province, and Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province has been cut from the original 14 days plus seven days to seven days plus seven days, which shortens the 7-day centralized isolation time.

At the same time, popular tourist destination countries have also liberalized their entry policies. South Korea said on June 8 that all immigrants, regardless of their nationality, will be exempt from quarantine from the same day. Japan announced that it will resume the travel group of 98 countries including China from June 10, and tourists will not need to take COVID-19 tests.

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