*Government officials vowed to increase international flights;
*International flights recovered to about 71% of pre-COVID levels in Feb 12-18;
*China continued to extend visa-free policies to more countries, and vice versa.
Guangzhou (JLC), March 15, 2024 – China will continue to speed up the recovery of inbound and outbound flights this year by introducing and optimizing various measures including visa policies, according to government officials including Foreign Minister Wang Yi and an official of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
“China will build a fast-track network for personnel exchanges, accelerate the recovery of international passenger flights, continue to expand the visa-free policies and reach various multi-year and multi-entry visa arrangements with more countries,” said Wang Yi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, on March 7 at a press conference on the sidelines of the China’s “two sessions”.
This is one of the top three priorities for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2024, Wang Yi said.
Similarly, CAAC official Dai Jun said on February 29 that China will allocate more resources and optimize approval procedures to ensure that new flight capacity can be added by domestic and international airlines in a timely manner.
He also said CAAC will continue to expedite the recovery of international flights to better meet the need of people-to-people exchanges.
Int'l flights recover to 70.7% of pre-COVID levels in Feb 12-18
Domestic and international airlines collectively operated 5,389 regular international passenger flights (one round trip counts as one flight) in February 12-18 during the Spring Festival, the CAAC said.
The figure represented 70.7% of the pre-pandemic level for the corresponding period, the CAAC added.
China currently operates regular international flights to 64 countries, 48 of which are BRI countries, accounting for 75%, the aviation regulator said.
Flight volume between China and 22 countries – including Singapore, Australia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand, Türkiye, Qatar, Egypt and Bangladesh – already exceeded pre-pandemic levels, the CAAC said. Meanwhile, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Tanzania, Serbia and Papua New Guinea have recently been added to the list of countries operating flights to China.
For China-U.S. flights, airlines from both countries will be allowed to operate 100 regular flights per week, starting from March 31, 2024, the CAAC said.
However, flights between the world's two largest economies will still be well below the pre-COVID average of about 300 flights per week, market sources said. The recovery of China-U.S. flights will still be subject to various factors, including high operating costs as U.S. planes have been banned from flying over Russia's airspace since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, market sources added.
Visa-free policies to boost inbound and outbound travel
For inbound travel, China continued to extend visa-free policies to more countries.
For example, China extended its 15-day visa-free travel policy to six more European countries, namely Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg on a trial basis, effective from March 14 to November 30, 2024, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At the end of 2023, a similar visa-free policy was granted to ordinary passport holders from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. With a trial period from December 1, 2023 to November 30, 2024, the policy allowed travelers from these countries to enjoy visa-free travel to China for up to 15 days.
For outbound travel, more countries began offering visa exemptions to China as they opened their arms to embrace Chinese tourists.
For instance, China and Singapore allowed their citizens holding ordinary passports to be exempted from applying for a visa prior to entry for purposes of tourism, business or family visits. This arrangement took effect on February 9, 2024, granting citizens of both countries a stay of up to 30 days.
In addition, China and Thailand bilaterally agreed on a similar visa-free policy on January 28, 2024. This agreement took effect from March 1, 2024.
So far, China has completed mutual visa exemptions with 23 countries, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at a regular press conference on February 7.
