(Yicai Global) May 16 -- A number of Chinese carriers, including Juneyao Airlines and Spring Airlines, are beginning to restart passenger flights to and from Shanghai, as the city’s Covid-19 resurgence is chiefly under control. Cargo services at Shanghai Pudong International Airport are also in the process of resuming.

Juneyao Airlines restarted flights today between Pudong Airport and Longyan in Fujian province, its first scheduled Shanghai passenger service since the authorities brought in Covid restrictions early this month, according to a source at the Shanghai-based company. It has been operating chartered and interim flights only due to the curbs.

Spring Airlines will resume flights between Shanghai and Kunming and Dalian on May 18, the Shanghai-based carrier has announced.

Pudong Airport is also resuming freight transport. Its cargo and mail throughput was 5,938 tons on May 10, up 133 percent from April 18, according to transport ministry data.

Since the east coast metropolis began to implement strict Covid restrictions, most Shanghai flights had been temporarily halted. Of all those that previously departed from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, only one was left in service, a flight operated by China Eastern Airlines to Beijing.

As a result, the operating figures of many domestic airlines, especially those based out of Shanghai, deteriorated last month. Juneyao Airlines’ passenger capacity plunged 91 percent from a year earlier and 82 percent from March, with passenger volume down 94 percent and 84 percent, respectively. The carrier’s load factor was almost 58 percent in April, down nearly 25 percentage points from the same month in 2021.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione