(Yicai Global) April 18 -- China’s civil aviation sector has been reopening routes and resuming flights since the country lifted its Covid-19 controls, and now offers passenger flights to 59 countries, equivalent to 82 percent of the pre-epidemic level, according to new figures released by the industry’s regulator today.

From April 10 to 16, China operated 2,242 international flights, equivalent to over 29 percent of the pre-pandemic level and 4.7 times the level at the beginning of this year, said Xu Qing, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China’s transport department at a briefing held today.

The top five countries for flights to China were Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia, indicating a significant growth rate in neighboring markets, Xu noted.

The CAAC will continue to approve applications from Chinese and foreign airlines to resume and start new international flights, she added, and it will also help in solving difficulties and problems in the process.

But there are still ongoing negotiations with some countries to resume flights, and employment in the sector has not yet returned to full capacity, so it will take some time for international flights to fully recover, industry insiders told Yicai Global.

Chinese airlines logged nearly 129 million passenger trips in the first quarter of the year, up 69 percent from a year ago and equivalent to 80 percent of the level in the first quarter of 2019, according to the CAAC data. 

Of those journeys, 126 million were domestic flights, up 67 percent from a year ago and equivalent to 89 percent of the level in 2019; international trips stood at 2.2 million in the first quarter, up 717 percent from a year ago and equivalent to 12.4 percent of the level in 2019, the data showed. 

Editors: Dou Shicong, Tom Litting