China likely to keep curbs on int’l flights until June 2022

China’s aviation regulator is likely to keep the current tight caps on international flights throughout the first half of 2022, analysts cited Air China as saying this week.

The move has broad implications for tourism in the Asia-Pacific region, where Chinese outbound travellers normally play an outsized role, though other countries have also been slow to open borders because of relatively low vaccination rates and rising Covid-19 cases.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) last month

said that weekly international flights were at only 2 per cent of 2019

levels, as more flights were suspended amid a rising number of imported Covid-19 cases.

This would push a full recovery further out to 2024, Jain added.