China's overseas air travel resumes, but delayed by COVID headwind

China is reopening its borders that have been largely shut for the last three years, scrapping quarantine requirements for inbound travelers and removing restrictions on international flights. But how quickly will cross-border travel return to pre-COVID levels? The answer: It's complicated. In a very optimistic scenario, international flights to and from China will return to frequencies not seen since 2019 by this northern hemisphere summer at the earliest, several civil aviation experts told Caixin. But this prediction comes with some caveats, including how quickly airports can get security staff and protocols back up to full capacity and airlines can bring pilots and cabin crew back up to speed. Not to mention how the rampant COVID outbreak nationwide will temper the recovery in demand. The doors to international travel for people in China, which was the world's largest source of outbound travelers -- and the biggest spenders -- prior to the pandemic, swung open again on Jan. 8, when it restarted issuing passports to citizens and stopped requiring inbound travelers to undergo quarantine. The restrictions on international flights under the "five-one" policy were also removed on that date. The policy, in effect since March 2020, allowed Chinese mainland carriers to operate one flight per week on one route to any country and foreign airlines one flight a week to China. However, from Sunday, the number of imported cases infected with new strains is expected to accelerate, and experts say that the possibility of a new domestic outbreak cannot be ruled out.<br/>