Beijing Daxing International Airport File photo: Xinhua

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is accelerating China-US flight resumption applications, along with applications from domestic and foreign airlines submitted from Sunday, to resume personnel exchanges and trade without requiring nucleic acid tests upon arrival or centralized quarantine, an official from the CAAC said on Tuesday.

The CAAC is accelerating work in accordance with its procedures, and welcomes Chinese and US airlines to operate flights between the two countries in accordance with the agreement and market demand, so as to make new and greater contributions to promoting personnel exchanges and economic and trade exchanges between the two countries, Liang Nan, an official of the CAAC, said at the Thematic Briefing on China's COVID-19 Policy held in Beijing on Tuesday.

In the process of flight resumption, the CAAC will strengthen communication with the civil aviation authorities of the US to promote the smooth resumption of flights, Liang said.

Chinese and foreign airlines are positive about the resumption of international flights after the CAAC began to handle applications from January 8.

Nearly 40 Chinese and foreign airlines applied to resume flights, involving about 700 weekly passenger flights connecting 34 countries, and most of the flights are scheduled to resume from late January to February, according to the CAAC. 

Passengers queue up to go through entry procedures at Shanghai Pudong International Airport in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 8, 2023. From Sunday, China starts managing COVID-19 with measures designed for combating Class B infectious diseases, instead of Class A infectious diseases. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)

Besides, the CAAC is also handling applications for international passenger charter flights and business jets to meet the needs of international business travel.

China downgraded the management of COVID-19 from Class A to Class B as of January 8. The policy shift includes lifting international flight capacity, which means that Chinese and foreign airlines, including those from the US, may operate scheduled passenger flights in accordance with bilateral air transport agreements.

Liang said that a recovery will take a relatively long time, since the resumption of international flights is affected by multiple factors such as demand, capacity, schedule coordination and approval by domestic and foreign civil aviation authorities.

She said that after three years of the epidemic, it will take time for people to recover their willingness to travel across borders. Overall, the international aviation market recovery will be slower than for the domestic sector.

The number of international flights to and from China stood at 563 this week, equivalent to about 6 percent of the pre-epidemic level in 2019, Liang said. 

Based on this, a preliminary forecast is that the number of international flights will increase before the end of February, and return to about 1,000 flights per week, or about 11 percent of the 2019 level.

By the end of March, the aviation market will further recover to 15-25 percent of the pre-epidemic level, reaching 1,300-2,300 flights per week. The recovery of the international aviation market is expected to accelerate in the second half of this year. 

"If the market recovers well, the number of flights by the end of the year is expected to return to 80 percent of the pre-epidemic level, reaching 7,300 flights per week," said Liang.