Flights to Shanghai from abroad to be diverted

Imaginechina

More than 100 international flights to Shanghai will be diverted to one of a dozen different domestic airports beginning March 21 to help relieve the city's recent COVID-19 prevention pressure.

The 106 flights to be diverted are on 22 routes operated by five domestic airlines – Air China, China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, Juneyao and Spring, the Civil Aviation Administration of China ( CAAC) announced on Tuesday.

Through May 1, these flights will land in Chengdu in southwest Sichuan Province; Dalian in northeast Liaoning Province; Fuzhou and Xiamen in southeast Fujian Province; Hangzhou and Ningbo in neighboring Zhejiang Province; Ji'nan in east Shandong Province; Kunming in southwest Yunnan Province; Nanchang in east Jiangxi Province; Taiyuan in north Shanxi Province; Changsha in central Hunan Province and Chongqing.

The adjustment was approved by the State Council, or the nation's Cabinet.

"The airlines are required to inform passengers who have already booked tickets about the flight diversions in order to protect their legal rights," Xu Qing, vice director of the of the CAAC's transportation department, said at a press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.

An increasing number of locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and asymptomatic infections have recently plagued Shanghai. Gene-sequencing analysis and epidemiological investigations have concluded imported coronavirus cases are the source of the infections.

There have been more than 4,300 imported COVID-19 cases in the city since the initial outbreak two years ago. Among them, 581 people are being treated at Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, the city's designated hospital for COVID-19 patients, said the city government in its daily COVID-19 report released on Tuesday morning.

More than 14,000 international flights landed at Shanghai's two airports in 2021, accounting for more than one-third of the Chinese mainland's total. That rate has increased about 40 percent in January and February.

All arriving travelers from overseas must undergo two weeks of quarantine at local hotels along with another week of home quarantine.

"It is a great burden for Shanghai to accommodate the huge number of arriving air travelers," said Li Hanming, a civil aviation expert.

More than 200 quarantine rooms are needed to accommodate all the passengers from one single flight, in addition to many buses and drivers to transport them.

China Eastern said detailed landing plans for its international flights to Shanghai will be released soon. The Shanghai-based carrier operates 12 international flights to Shanghai, including those from New York, Toronto, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt.

After the adjustment, the suspension mechanism for international passenger flights will remain in place. A flight will be suspended for two weeks if the number of passengers testing positive reaches five. The suspension is extended to four weeks if the number reaches 10.