The Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) will have more flights in the coming days as the National Health Commission slashes quarantine restrictions for travelers with declining COVID-19 cases.

Starting from Sunday, Hong Kong Airlines said it will resume a route on Saturday, from Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province to Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific also said it will increase its flights to three times a week for the route from Hong Kong to Hangzhou.

Hangzhou is not alone. Cathay Pacific resumed its route from Hong Kong to Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, from July 1 after a suspension from January 24, 2020.

In addition, Air China said it will resume flights between Chengdu and Hong Kong from July 16, with two trips per week.

Cathay Pacific said they will increase flight capacity as much as is practicable under the confines of ongoing restrictions when looking ahead to June and beyond.

The carrier started the year operating flights to 29 destinations and targets to double that by the end of the year.

On June 29, China cut the quarantine period for close contacts of patients infected with COVID-19 and people entering China from overseas. The isolation period was reduced from 14 days of collective quarantine and another seven days of home health monitoring to seven and three days respectively.

Seven Chinese cities, including Dalian, Suzhou, Qingdao and Guangzhou started a trial phase, from April to May, to adopt the new measures.

Hong Kong's new leader has vowed to bring down the city's daily COVID-19 caseload and lobby his mainland counterparts for "limited measures" to reopen the border with the rest of the country, according to the South China Morning Post on Sunday.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu made the promise after calls from top advisers to launch a quarantine-free business travel corridor ahead of a full border reopening.

Global Times