Chinese gov’t halts all flights to Xi’an over COVID spike

The Chinese government has imposed a strict lockdown on the city of Xi’an due to a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases, cutting off nearly all transportation to and from the city, including by air.

During the lockdown, travel to and from the city is practically banned with all scheduled flights to Xi’an Xianyang airport cancelled. Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows that there are currently 105 aircraft grounded at the airport, around half of which are operated by China Eastern Airlines (MU, Shanghai Hongqiao), which is normally Xi’an’s largest operator with a 34.7% market share by weekly departure capacity. The ch-aviation capacities module shows that Xi’an is currently China’s tenth largest airport by scheduled weekly departure capacity.

With a population of over 13 million, the capital of Shaanxi province, located some 900 kilometres southwest of Beijing, went into lockdown on December 22. The city is battling its largest wave of Covid infections since 2020, with 342 confirmed cases in the province (330 of which were recorded in Xi’an) between December 9 and 24, 2021. Since then, the number of identified infections has continued to rise. While the numbers are relatively low by global standards, China has been unwaveringly following a zero-COVID policy and imposes strict lockdowns much faster than the vast majority of other states.

Xi’an is currently designated a “controlled city”, only the fourth time China’s second-highest lockdown level has been applied to a major metro area.