(Yicai Global) Dec. 14 -- Many Chinese airlines are increasing the number of flights this month as passenger volumes rebound with the easing of Covid-19 travel restrictions, online news outlet The Paper reported today.

Juneyao Airlines plans to fully restore flights to key cities, including Guangzhou in southern Guangdong province, Guiyang in southwestern Guizhou province and Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan province, from the middle of this month, the report said. This would bring the number of flights per day to almost 250, close to last year’s level.

Suparna Airlines is hiking the number of flights, said an executive at the carrier owned by Hainan Airlines. Eight of the airline’s fleet of 10 Boeing 738s are in use and the other two will be brought back into operation on Dec. 19. The Shanghai-based firm’s daily flight volume has been gaining at a rate of around 30 percent a day since Dec. 7.

And China Eastern Airlines had 1,379 flights on Dec. 12, more than two-and-a-half times the number on Dec. 1, the Shanghai-based carrier said yesterday.

Air travel is bouncing back as the Chinese government eases travel restrictions. Yesterday, it scrapped the ‘trip tracking card,’ which traced the movements of people across the country and was used as a tool to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. And on Dec. 7 regulators said the health codes and Covid-19 test results of people travelling between provinces will no longer be checked, and that they do not need to take tests on arrival anymore.

Passenger flight volume has rebounded to more than 3,000 a day, after a low point at the beginning of the month, and even topped 7,000 flights on Dec. 11 and Dec. 12, the report said.

Editor: Kim Taylor