Number of round-trip flights between China, U.S. to increase

Passenger flights between China and the United States will continue to increase to 100 round trips per week from the end of March, about one-third of the flights that were offered between the nations before the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Dai Jun, deputy director of the operation center of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the number of scheduled international flights has increased during the Spring Festival travel rush, which started on Jan 26.

He also noted that Chinese and American airlines will be allowed to operate 100 round trips per week starting March 31.

According to Lin Zhijie, a civil aviation industry analyst, more than 300 round trips were operated every week between China and the U.S. in 2019.

From Feb 12 to 18, 5,389 international round-trip flights were operated between China and other nations, about 70.7 percent of the volume seen before the pandemic, according to the CAA.

The administration will continue to allocate more resources and optimize the approval procedure to help airlines increase the number of international flights according to the market demand, Dai said.

China aims to significantly increase direct flights to and from the United States, according to the administration's annual conference.

The number of direct flights between the two nations has recovered to 63 round trips per week as of the beginning of this year.