China Southern Airlines flight CZ3001 takes off at the Daxing International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 25, 2019. File photo:Xinhua

 
China Southern Airlines said on Monday that it will resume international flights from Guangzhou to New York on December 1. The news comes as Chinese airlines flock to restart overseas services.  

China Southern said that the weekly route to New York is the third one to North America after the routes from Guangzhou to Los Angeles and Toronto, which will provide convenience for students and businessmen.

China Southern said it had resumed 13 overseas routes as of October 20, including Wuhan to Istanbul, Shenzhen to Moscow, and Guangzhou to Dubai. 

Various Chinese airlines have been busy restarting their international services in recent days.

China Eastern Airlines said that it would double its international flights from 54 to 108 per week from October 30. 

Hainan Airlines said it will fly ten round trips to overseas cities, including flights from Beijing to Brussels, Moscow and Belgrade from October 30.

Hainan Airlines' official Weibo said on October 15 that from November 6, the Chongqing-Rome route will be increased to two round-trips per week.
   
Air China said in late September that it will resume several international routes including those from Beijing to Manila, Jakarta and Tokyo.

Data sent to the Global Times from industry information provider VariFlight showed that flights in and out of China have witnessed soaring demand in the past two months. 

The number of flights in September was 2,337, with an average of about 78 flights per day. The planned number of overseas flights in November based on tickets sold as of October 18 is 2,652, with an average of about 88 flights per day.

Although Chinese airlines have seen only a weak increase in total flights in recent months, international flights are now seeing a clear upward trend. 

Hainan Airlines said its passenger transport capacity input for international flights in September measured by available seat kilometers increased by 186.38 percent year-on-year, and the international part of passenger turnover measured by revenue passenger kilometers increased by 99.10 percent year-on-year. 

China Eastern said its international passenger capacity input and international passenger turnover increased by 13.07 percent and 25.06 percent year-on-year, respectively.

In June this year, Liang Nan, an official from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said that under the premise of ensuring epidemic prevention, international flights are conducive to China's economic development and personnel exchanges between China and foreign countries.

Chinese authorities also revised the flight circuit-breaker mechanism in August to facilitate the resumption of international flights.

Starting from August 7, any flight with five detected COVID-19 cases will be suspended for one week when the confirmed cases account for 4 percent of all those onboard, and for two weeks when the confirmed cases account for 8 percent, the CAAC said.