China cuts suspension time of international flights

The Civil Aviation Administration has shortened the suspension time of international flights linked to COVID-19 cases from Sunday to better promote the economic development and international exchanges.

According to the latest notice issued by the administration on Sunday, when the airline has five confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection on a single inbound flight and the confirmed passengers make up 4 percent of the flight's total inbound travelers, the flight will be suspended for one week.

The flight will be suspended for two weeks if the number reaches 8 percent. The suspended flight shall not be used for other routes.

Early in April 2021, the administration updated its "circuit breaker mechanism" on regular international inbound passenger flights following the nation's epidemic control and prevention policy.

According to the mechanism updated then, the airline with five confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection on one single inbound passenger flight had two options to restrict its future operations.

It could choose to suspend the flight for two weeks from the fourth week after the flight entered the domestic airspace and the other option was to operate the flight with passenger load under 40 percent of the capacity for four weeks from the fourth week after the flight entered the domestic airspace.

For the airline with 10 confirmed cases on one single inbound flight, the flight was suspended from operation for four weeks from the fourth week after entering the domestic airspace. If the airline's two consecutive inbound flights had 10 confirmed cases, the flight was suspended immediately for eight weeks.

If the confirmed cases on one single inbound flight reached 30, the flight was suspended immediately for four weeks.