China's domestic airlines starting to bounce back as restrictions ease
By Geoffrey Thomas Thu Apr 9, 2020
China’s domestic airlines are starting to bounce back with the easing of restrictions according to Flightradar24.
From the start of March, the number of domestic Chinese flights has made tentative increases, stabilizing at around 50 per cent of 2019 volumes.
From late last month, the Chinese Civil Aviation Authority had notably resumed civil aviation flights from Hubei province.
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However, Flightradar24 says the recovery has not registered on the international markets because of the continuing travel restrictions around the world.
On Thursday at 1.05 pm AWST, there were 3051 commercial aircraft flying around the world.
Of those China, Japan and South Korea accounted for 1076 - or one third.
At that time there were 257 flights in Australian airspace.
New Zealand by contrast - in total lockdown - only had 7 flights in the air.
And according to Forbes US-based United Airlines could soon resume passenger flights to China with a flight between San Francisco and Shanghai Pudong.
It says that demand is increasing as business resumes in China and its U.S. corporate customers re-establish supply chains.
China’s output is growing and is now put at 70 per cent of pre-coronavirus levels.
However, China is worried about “imported coronavirus cases” so a relaxing of international flights is not likely in the short term.
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