(Yicai) Oct. 29 -- The Civil Aviation Administration of China said the country has begun implementing the flight schedule for this winter-spring season, adding more international flights.

Some 194 domestic and overseas airlines have introduced 118,000 passenger and cargo flights a week from Oct. 27 to March 29, up 1.2 percent from a year earlier, the aviation regulator announced on Oct. 25.

The number of international flights to and from China jumped 4.9 percent in the new winter-spring season, according to data from travel platform Dast. However, there are 0.9 percent fewer domestic flights and 13 percent fewer flights to Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.

Airlines increased their willingness to resume international routes in the new winter-spring season, according to travel agency Ctrip. Flights to and from Southeast Asia account for 48 percent of the total, while those to and from Africa and West Asia have exceeded the level of 2019.

The CAAC approved 178 domestic and overseas airlines to apply for 19,327 passenger and cargo flights a week in the winter-spring season, with over half being to and from 57 countries taking part in the Belt and Road initiative. For example, Air China plans to launch flights from Urumqi to Tbilisi, from Beijing to Almaty, Tashkent and Cairo, and from Chengdu to Almaty.

However, the number of scheduled international flights for the new winter-spring season remains 23 percent lower than the 2019-20 season, mainly because of the slower-than-expected recovery in the European and United States markets.

The number of flights to North America for the new season is less than half the figure in the 2019-20 season, according to Dast. Although Europe has the most direct routes, their number is down by seven from five years ago.

Chinese airlines are making every effort to resume flights to Europe and the US, with the number of flights run by China Eastern Airlines to Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia exceeding the level of 2019. Overseas airlines have been slow to recover or temporarily withdrawn due to reasons such as having to fly around the Russian airspace.

For the new winter-spring season, the proportion of international flights operated by Chinese airlines has increased to 62 percent, much higher than the average level from previous years.

Editor: Martin Kadiev