(Yicai Global) May 29 -- Japanese and Korean companies have resorted to charter flights to bring their employees back to central China's Wuhan, the early epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic which houses many car and panel display factories, to help resume production.

"More charter flights are in the works," Xu Jingbo, head of the Japan bureau of the Asian News Agency who has helped arrange some of the charter flights, told Yicai Global.

China has created a fast track program for eligible businesspeople from certain countries to enter the mainland while its border remains generally closed for foreigners due to the Covid-19 epidemic. All recent arrivals have been placed in quarantine institutions for 14 days.

"Japanese firms were eagerly looking forward to the Chinese side opening a green channel for their employees to return to China and resume work," said Xu. "Besides Japanese firms in Wuhan, those in Shanghai, Guangdong province, and Beijing also have similar needs."

On May 27, two charter flights carrying a total of 136 passengers, mostly employees of Japanese carmakers such as Honda Motor and Nissan Motor who had fled the central Chinese city in February, arrived in Wuhan from Kansai. They had to get tested for the virus before leaving the plane, which took less than two hours, according to Wuhan's authorities.

Organizing the two flights took about 20 days as the Chinese aviation authority needed to approve the trips, according to Xu. But for the travelers, it was worth the wait. "They [passengers] seemed happy while urgently wanting to get back to work in Chinese factories," according to Xu.

More than 300 South Korean employees, most of them working at Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone for firms such as TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology, Tianma Micro-Electronics, and Yangtze Memory Technologies, have also taken charter flights to the Chinese city this month. One batch of them, which arrived on May 1, has already been released from quarantine with no reported infections.

Nissan's Chinese plants reopened last month while foreign workers have gradually been getting back to work in accordance with epidemic prevention measures, the Yokohama-headquartered company told Yicai Global.

Editor: Zhang Yushuo, Emmi Laine