Some Chinese carriers are expected to increase more international flights, after the State Council's meeting, which vowed to increase international passenger flights in an orderly manner in a bid to save the bleeding industry dragged by the epidemic.

A source closed to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) told the Global Times on Thursday that Air China is expected to add one weekly flight from New York to Beijing starting on June 5, followed by flights on June 12 and 19.

The newly added route is not temporary, the source said.

The additional flights were confirmed by Air China customer service staff, who said on Thursday night that under the current "Five One" policy, there are only two flights to the US. One is from Beijing to Los Angeles every Sunday, and the other is from Shenzhen to Los Angeles every Tuesday. The airline said that it will add one flight from Beijing to New York per week in the first three weeks of June.

Online news outlet, yicai.com, also reported on Thursday that China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines are allowed to open more international flights.

China Southern Airlines has obtained new flight quotas to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkey, after flights to the two countries in Central Asia were temporarily suspended during the epidemic.

Hainan Airlines has been granted an additional flight quota to Italy after Air China resumed a flight to the European destination. In addition, Air China has been allocated a quota of flights to Belarus and the United Arab Emirates, after flights were reduced in September, 2021, according to yicai.com.

To curb imported COVID-19 cases, the CAAC launched the "Five One" policy in March of 2020, which allows Chinese airlines to fly once a week on one route to any country, while foreign airlines can operate just one flight a week to China.

Although some carriers are allowed to fly two routes under an equivalence principle, the routes are still limited to the pool of flights that have not been discontinued from March 16 to 22, 2020, according to yicai.com, adding that the newly announced flights include routes that were suspended during the epidemic, which shows that the there are some breakthroughs in the "Five One" policy.

Those moves came on the heels of the State Council's rolling out a comprehensive package of measures to bolster the Chinese economy which has seen a marked slowdown recently due to coronavirus lockdowns.

The State Council said it will orderly increase domestic and international passenger flights to facilitate personnel exchanges between foreign companies.

While international flights are expected to increase further, Chinese embassies in many countries have also recently relaxed the testing requirements for travelers to China.

The Chinese embassies in several countries such as US, Ireland, Denmark and Spain have successively issued notices to relax the pre-departure testing requirements for people going to China.

Under the newly adjusted rules, travelers to China will only be required to complete two nucleic acid tests within 48 hours before boarding and one antigen test within 12 hours before boarding. Those who test negative will be given a health code and allowed to board the plane. There will be no additional requirements for those who have recovered from infections.