(Yicai Global) March 15 -- Some international flights to Shanghai will be diverted to one of a dozen other Chinese cities to help relieve pressure on the metropolis amid Covid-19 control measures, as the city contends with the latest wave of infections.

The 106 flights to be diverted between March 21 to May 1 are on 22 routes operated by five domestic carriers, the Civil Aviation Administration of China announced on Tuesday. They are Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Juneyao Airlines and Spring Airlines.

The flights will be diverted to other cities, including Hangzhou, Dalian, Kunming and Chengdu, Xu Qing, vice director of the CAAC's department of transportation, said at a press briefing today.

The airlines involved have applied to regulators for their choice of new entry airports, Yicai Global learned.

The single-day numbers for new local confirmed Covid-19 cases and asymptomatic infections in China are still rising. Data released by the National Health Commission today shows that on March 14, a total of 3,507 new local confirmed cases were reported across 31 provincial-level areas, up from 1,337 on March 13. New local asymptomatic cases numbered 1,647, rising from 906 cases the previous day.

Because of the need for Covid-19 prevention and control measures, Shenyang Taoxian International Airport, one of the major aviation hubs in northeast China, announced this morning the cancellation of all flights today.

It said in a notice that airport terminal operations were also suspended, without elaborating on the temporary closure. Large-scale flights cancellations have also hit other domestic airports.

The Chinese aviation sector’s recovery rate was 80 percent in mid-February, but the figure has fallen to just 33 percent amid renewed Covid-19 outbreaks, industry insider Lin Zhijie told Yicai Global.

“Passenger traffic is just a third of pre-pandemic levels in 2019,” Lin said. “With China sticking to its dynamic zero-Covid strategy, the pandemic’s impact on the civil aviation industry will continue for some time, with a fundamental recovery difficult in the short term.”

The CAAC diverted overseas flights bound for Beijing to other cities in 2020 shortly after the novel coronavirus broke out. Back then, all international flights to Beijing, including those of foreign airlines, were instructed to land at other Chinese airports.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Peter Thomas