China adjusts plans for international passenger flights

Beijing

China's civil aviation regulator on Thursday adjusted policies for international passenger flights, allowing more foreign carriers to resume flights to the Asian giant on a once-a-week basis starting from June 8 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Foreign airlines that have been unable to operate flights to China over the past few months due to the novel coronavirus pandemic can choose a qualified Chinese city for entry starting June 8, Xinhua news agency quoted a statement by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) as saying.

Airlines can file their pre-flight plans for the period to October 24 to the CAAC, the statement said.

To contain the risks of imported COVID-19 cases, China reduced the number of international passenger flights in March, allowing each operating foreign airline to operate only one inbound route with no more than one flight a week.

Starting June 8, the CAAC will also introduce a reward and suspension mechanism, with detailed policies for the carriers to increase or suspend flights.

If all inbound passengers of a flight test negative for novel coronavirus for three weeks in a row, the operating airline will be allowed to increase the number of flights to two per week.

But if the number of passengers testing positive reaches five, the flight will be suspended for a week.

The suspension will last four weeks if the number of passengers testing positive reaches 10, according to the statement.

The CAAC also said China may "modestly increase" flights from some qualified countries under the conditions of controllable risks and adequate receiving capacities.