Shanghai flights from Frankfurt, Moscow grounded over COVID-19 concerns
An Aeroflot-Russian Airlines jetliner.
Two international flights to Shanghai have been suspended for two weeks by China's civil aviation regulator.
Lufthansa's Flight LH728 from Frankfurt to Shanghai will be put on hold from November 15 after five passengers on a flight from Germany tested positive for COVID-19 on October 26, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Thursday.
Aeroflot-Russian Airlines' Flight SU208 from Moscow to Shanghai, which has been suspended multiple times, will be grounded from November 29 after another five passengers on a flight from Moscow tested positive for COVID-19 on October 29, the administration said.
The Russian airline was earlier punished by the CAAC in August and June, when, too, five passengers each time tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
In May, the airline was penalized as eight passengers tested positive for COVID-19. It was forced to cap the load factor, or percentage of seats filled, to no more than 40 percent for four weeks.
The same flight has been suspended several times since October last year. It was halted for a week on October 19 after eight travelers tested positive on October 2. The ban was extended to four weeks due to 11 passengers testing positive on October 9.
Last December, the flight was again suspended for four weeks as 11 people on board tested positive.
The CAAC has asked the airlines to work together with local consulates to appease the travelers and offer refund services.
The CAAC launched its suspension mechanism for international passenger flights in June 2020, and updated the policy last December to further contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
A flight suspension is extended from one week to two if the number of passengers testing positive reaches five. The suspension lasts for four weeks if the number reaches 10.
If all of an airline's inbound passengers test negative three weeks in a row, it will be allowed to increase its flights to two per week.
