China - 1 Route out - 1 a week - This will be us!Very interesting info coming out of CAAC - kiss goodbye to things popping back to normal in 2020 for EU / USA The Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) is limiting the number of international flights coming in and out of China in order to curtail the rise of imported coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in the country, the aviation regulator said in a statement on its website.
Starting March 29, Chinese airlines are only allowed to maintain one route to any specific country with no more than one flight per week each, while foreign airlines are only allowed to maintain one route to China with no more than one weekly flight, CAAC said in the statement posted on its website on March 26.
“CAAC may issue policy to further reduce the total number of international passenger flights. Airlines therefore are required to closely follow information released, analyse the situation and make contingency plans in advance, and handle in a proper way the issues such as extension and refund of sold air tickets, etc,” the CAAC said.
Further, no flight can exceed 75% load factor for passenger spacing.
Might be too expensive for European carriers to operate flights on this basis: the aircraft will have to park up for 2 days at PVG, PEK, CAN, etc., while the crew have their rest time, 75% loads may also compromise profitability. European countries may apply similar reciprocal restrictions on Chinese carriers. Could be good for CX, unless the same rules apply.