China's international flights have now been limited to no more than 134 per week in an effort to effectively sever increasing numbers of imported infections while meeting the needs of overseas Chinese nationals especially overseas students for coming back home, according to officials from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
A total of 18 domestic carriers are scheduling 88 international flights, and 20 foreign carriers from 12 countries are expected to fly 20 international flights this week, with the maximum passenger load at 75 percent, according to the CAAC.
Thailand, Cambodia and Japan are the three countries that will operate the most flights to China, Ma Bing, a director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at a press briefing on Thursday. He said Thailand will fly 12 flights, Cambodia 10 and Japan 9.
At the conference, Ma also said that 106 international flights departing for Beijing have been diverted to other cities in China, involving 24,651 passengers, of whom 84 percent are now in quarantine locally.
"The flights involved were from 18 countries, with the U.S. (13), Japan (13) and Canada (10) ranking the top," Ma said.
The authorities earlier decided to divert international flights from the capital city to 12 other cities including North China's Tianjin, Shijiazhuang in North China's Hebei Province and Taiyuan in North China's Shanxi Province, as the capital is facing pressure to curb increasing numbers of imported cases.
According to the CAAC, China's flights increased to 6,533 in March, recovering to 42 percent of the level seen pre-COVID-19.
Four airports in Central China's Hubei Province that recently opened - all airports in the province with the exception of Wuhan Tianhe International Airport - have seen 377 flights, sending 26,423 passengers as of Wednesday.
