China's international flight suspensions leave travellers stranded, hurt businesses

Even before the latest flight cancellations, international capacity to and from China was running at just 2% of pre-COVID levels as the country sticks to a strict zero-COVID policy of stamping out all cases while other parts of world open up. The zero-COVID mentality is likely to stay for most of 2022, Bank of America Securities analysts said in a note on Tuesday, in bad news for the 845,000 foreign passport holders in China, a number already reduced since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. China’s aviation regulator in January alone cancelled 143 return flights as the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreads across the globe, according to a report from Chinese aviation data provider flight master last Friday. That was the most in a month since it introduced a policy of suspending flights when positive cases were found in June 2020. The flight suspensions, which also include some services to Europe and other parts of Asia, are one of the biggest challenges faced by companies doing business in China, said a spokesperson for the Europe Chamber of Commerce in China. “The recent cancellations send a clear message that China will not deviate from its current strategy,” the spokesperson said, referring to the zero-COVID policy. China now requires passengers to have started costly COVID tests seven days before boarding in the departure city of their direct flight into China. That creates a headache for travellers like Law who are not based in US cities with direct flights. Tough travel policies in transit hubs for US-China travellers like Taiwan, Korea and Japan also effectively rule out less costly indirect flights. Jing Quan, minister of the Chinese embassy in the United States, said Beijing is working closely with the State Department to strike a balance on the number of commercial flights to China. Charter flights for Olympics athletes have not been affected, he said.<br/>