What’s new: Chinese airlines plan to resume some cancelled flights between Shanghai and other cities in the country after the Asian financial hub decided to gradually reopen Covid-hit businesses from Monday, the start of the seventh week of its citywide lockdown.
Juneyao Airlines Co. Ltd. (603885.SH) announced Saturday that it will resume its passenger service between Shanghai and Longyan, East China’s Fujian province, from Monday, with three round-trip flights per week scheduled before June and four after that.
Spring Airlines Co. Ltd. (601021.SH) said that it will restart flights between Shanghai and Kunming, the capital of the southwestern province in Yunnan, from Wednesday, initially with one round-trip flight a day. In addition, it intends to operate a one-way flight from Shanghai to Dalian in Liaoning province just for students on Wednesday.
Sources from Juneyao Airlines told Caixin that all of the carrier’s outbound passenger flights from Shanghai have been suspended since the start of the citywide lockdown, with a few exceptions such as charter flights and international flights.
Background: Air traffic in Shanghai was restricted as early as March 21 when inbound international flights were diverted to other cities.
As of noon Monday, 464 of the day’s 466 scheduled domestic and international flights remain canceled at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. Only one round trip to Beijing was marked as “planned,” figures from information provider VariFlight showed. And the Shanghai Pudong International Airport, another major local airport, has already canceled 695 of the day’s 719 scheduled flights.
Before the lockdown, Shanghai’s two airports together handled more than 1,000 flights per day on average.
Contact reporter Manyun Zou (manyunzou@caixin.com) and editor Flynn Murphy (flynnmurphy@caixin.com)
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