International flights departing from cities in China are expected to increase after recent signs of further relaxation of tight restrictions for the past two years.
On Sunday, Air China restarted a route which was suspended for nearly one year, from Chengdu to Kathmandu. The route, which flies once per week, is the second international departure from Chengdu to be reopened after flights to Singapore started earlier with the normalization of epidemic prevention and control.
Hainan Airlines will also resume a direct flights from Chongqing, in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, to Rome on June 23. This is the first intercontinental international passenger route from Chongqing since the epidemic.
The Chongqing-Rome flight, the first international route opened by Hainan Airlines in Chongqing, had operated for nearly five years carrying more than 180,000 persons after its maiden flight in 2015. It was suspended due to the impact of the epidemic.
In a bid to curb imported COVID-19 cases, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) launched the "Five One" policy in March of 2020, which stated that airlines of the Chinese mainland could fly just once a week on one route to any country, and foreign airlines could operate just one flight a week to China.
Media reported that, as early as the end of May, three domestic airlines, China Southern Airlines, Air China and Hainan Airlines, have received the quota allocation of new international flights from the CAAC.
Additional inbound and outbound international flights will be gradually announced after reaching an agreement with foreign civil aviation authorities, according to online news outlet Yicai.
China Southern Airlines has obtained new flight quotas to Kyrgyzstan. Flights to Tajikistan and Turkey, which were temporarily suspended after the epidemic, were also reestablished, Yicai reported.
Air China has been allocated a flight quota to Belarus and the United Arab Emirates, after flights were reduced in September 2021.