China expects to restore international travel in 2023

by Airline Ratings Editors
617
January 10, 2022
China

China expects to restore international air travel from 2023, reports Flightglobal.

A new five-year development plan issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) calls the 2023-2025 timeframe “a period of growth”.

The report says key focus areas are to “expand the domestic market, restore the international market”, as well as “improve the level of reopening”.

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The plan covers 2021 to 2025, though the CAAC proposes to split it into two tranches: 2021-2022 as a “period of recovery and consolidation”, followed by growth from 2023-2025.

China’s desire for a Zero-Covid strategy has slowed the recovery of aviation in China.

International borders are tightly controlled and domestic travel restrictions are quickly imposed when local Covid-19 infections are found.

Flightglobal reports that the CAAC also disclosed plans to grow the number of airports in the country. In its five-year plan, the regulator expects to have 270 civil airports by end-2025, compared to 241 at the end of 2020.