(Yicai) Aug. 29 -- Some Chinese airlines have delayed increasing the number of flights to Japan after online ticket searches fell in the wake of Japanese authorities releasing radioactive wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean.

Bookings to Japan have fallen by about one-third this week from the previous seven days, with a jump in refunds, a Chinese carrier told Yicai. Another domestic airline said bookings to Japan had not changed much, but it is now taking a wait-and-see approach to adding more flights to the country.

Chinese airlines expanded their Japan schedules after it was included in China's third batch of countries and regions approved for outbound group tours on Aug. 10, with the Asian country subsequently becoming the most searched for destination.

Online searches for air tickets to Tokyo and Osaka nearly halved after Aug. 24, when Japan began to release the nuclear wastewater, according to data from several travel agencies. Searches for other popular cities abroad, including Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and London, increased this week from a week earlier.

During the summer holiday from July 1 to Aug. 22, Chinese tourists traveling to Thailand, South Korea, and Japan by air accounted for over 10 percent of the total outbound travelers, according to figures from industry data app Umetrip. Tokyo ranked fifth and Osaka seventh among the most popular destinations.

The price of airfares from Shanghai to Tokyo for the middle of next month was also down 10 percent compared to last week, travel agencies’ data showed. But that for China's upcoming National Day holiday from Sept. 29 through Oct. 6 was only slightly changed.

The resumption of flights between China and Japan is similar to that between China and other Asian countries, recovering to more than 40 percent of the pre-pandemic level in 2019 over the past three weeks, according to figures from flight tracker Flight Master.

Flights between China and South Korea recovered to 62 percent in the period, those between China and Europe to 51 percent, while flights from China to Singapore and the United Arab Emirates rebounded to more than 70 percent. The number of planes to the United Kingdom has returned to the pre-pandemic level.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Martin Kadiev