Outbound international passenger flights from China are soaring

Outbound international passenger flights from China are likely to grow by more than 200% month-on-month in August, industry data showed on Monday Aug. 1, as China continued to relax travel restrictions.

Flights to the US in particular are predicted to soar four times, the data showed.

A total of 2,845 outbound international flights are scheduled to operate in August, up from 904 in July, information provider VariFlight said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Monday. South Korea, Japan, the US, Thailand and France will be the top five destinations.

Flights from China to the US will total 188 this month, up from 34 in July, the statement said, with Shanghai Pudong, Beijing Daxing and Xiamen international airports to process the most flights.

In the first six months of 2019 the nine China-based airlines operating passenger services into Australia carried a total of 915,641 passengers. In the same six-month period in 2022 that number had shrunk to just three carriers and they transported a total of 22,251 passengers. In their absence, the remaining carriers have seized the opportunity and jacked up their prices on their European flights.

Outbound flights are recovering in an orderly manner after more than two years’ near freeze, as many domestic airlines have now accelerated the resumption of international flight services.