A Spring Airlines plane at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in December 2019 Photo: cnsphoto

Major Chinese airlines have started to cut the number of international flights followed by a notice from the China air regulator to restrict international flights in a bid to prevent more imported COVID-19 cases coming to the country.

As of 10:30 am, Saturday, nine airline companies, including China Eastern Airlines, Air China, China Southern Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Juneyao Airlines, Spring Airlines, Capital Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Kunming Airlines have released notice to readjust their international routes, which involved 78 international destinations and more than 150 flights per week.

The adjustment came after a notice issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China on Thursday, which asked each Chinese carrier to fly only one route to another country, and one flight per week. Also, the seat occupancy of flights arriving and departing from China should be no higher than 75 percent with strict prevention and control measures taken.

In accordance with the notice, China Eastern Airlines decided to keep 19 international destinations and operate 40 international flights per week until May 2. The 19 international stations include New York, Toronto, Paris, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Sydney, Auckland, Tokyo, Seoul, Delhi, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Phnom Penh, Yangon, Colombo and Dhaka.

Air China has announced to keep 23 international flights until April 30. And, China Southern Airlines has kept 18 international destinations with 36 flights per week, while Xiamen Airlines has reserved 10 international destinations with 20 flights per week.

Juneyao Airlines decided to retain four international flights including Helsinki in Finland, Osaka in Japan, Bangkok in Thailand and Singapore with eight flights per week.

Spring Airlines will retain four international flight routes from Shanghai to Tokyo, Jeju, Bangkok, and Phnom Penh with a total of 8 flights per week. 

Hainan Airlines has reserved two international flight routes from Beijing to Toronto and Brussels.

Capital Airlines has one international flight route from Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province to London with a total of two flights a week.

Kunming Airlines decided to cancel all its international flights after the CAAC notice. The last round-trip flight between Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province and Bangkok was made on Saturday.

The latest flight schedule and refund policies are available on the websites of the airline companies.

China reported 45 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday with 44 imported from abroad and one local case in central China's Henan Province.