The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said that as of 5 January, it has approved the resumption of 13,230 passenger flights to and from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan during the seven-day Chinese New Year “Golden Week” holidays, involving 186 routes.
It also revealed that 47 regions in mainland China will now have direct flights to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and 28 airlines will arrange 2,331 passenger flights per week effective immediately.
As an example, the CAAC cited Shanghai Pudong Airport which will have 30 daily flights to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan each day, comprising 12 flights to Macau, 10 to Hong Kong and eight to Taiwan.
Mainland China authorities had announced earlier that the normal operation of flights to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan would be resumed in an orderly manner from 8 January, that restrictions on the passenger capacity of flights from Hong Kong and Macau to the mainland would be lifted and the number of flights would be gradually increased.
Before the outbreak of COVID-19, there were 111 mainland China routes to and from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, completing 84,000 flights in 2019. This included 30 mainland cities flying to Hong Kong, 19 to Macau and 49 to Taiwan.
According to data from the CAAC, this fell to 94 routes to and from Mainland China to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan in 2020 with 16,500 flights, down 80.3% year-on-year.
In 2021 the number of flights fell by a further 24.2% to 12,000 flights comprising just 25 routes. There is not yet any final data for 2022.
RelatedPosts
