US, China agree to double weekly flights, move to promote bilateral aviation market toward pre-COVID normalization: analysts

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outbreak, the CAAC said in July.

But for international flights, the recovery pace has been slow.

According to data from the CAAC, as of the end of June this year, international passenger flights reached 3,368 per week, only recovering to 44 percent of the pre-epidemic level.

“Among China’s international flight market, routes to Southeast Asia have experienced the fastest recovery pace, while that to the US has performed the worst,” Qi said.

Some recent active tones set by high-level exchanges between the two countries can also be regarded as offering optimistic expectations for the further recovery of China-US aviation cooperation.

During US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Beijing in June, both sides agreed to encourage more people-to-people and educational exchanges, and had positive discussions on increasing passenger flights between the two countries, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

“The two peoples’ bonds and pragmatic business cooperation between the two countries could consolidate foundation of bilateral ties,” Diao Weimin, a senior professor at Civil Aviation Management Institute of China, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Given this, Diao said that more direct flights can be expected in the near future.

With more direct flights approved, the price of direct flights could also drop.

Currently, a one-way economy-class ticket for a China-US direct is priced around 10,000 yuan ($1,382). Before the pandemic, a roundtrip ticket would often by priced at under 5,000 yuan, according to online travel agency Trip.com.

The newly approved China-US direct flights followed China on Thursday resumed group tours to more destinations including the US, Japan and Australia.

In response, the US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said the move “is a significant win for the US travel and tourism industry and an important step forward to promote the type of people-to-people exchange that is crucial for our bilateral relationship.”

As a culmination of months of hard work between authorities on the two sides, “We look forward to once again welcoming Chinese group travel to the US,” she said. (Global Times)

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