(Yicai Global) Feb. 8 -- Chinese carriers are increasing the number of international routes and foreign airlines are starting to fly to China again as the country eases its pandemic prevention measures and overseas group tours are once again permitted, online news outlet The Paper reported.

Air China has already started flying again between Beijing and Australia as well as Beijing and Thailand. China Eastern Airlines expects to have 60 international and regional air routes operating by the end of the month, mainly to Southeast Asia, which is equal to about 410 such flights a week.

As of Feb. 6, China Southern Airlines was operating 50 global and regional routes, with 82 flights a week and Hainan Airlines had 20 such routes, including three to Thailand. Budget carrier Spring Airlines has also resumed the operation of 24 international air routes, among which 16 are to Southeast Asia.

Some 130,000 people flew out of China between Feb. 1 and Feb. 6, a nearly six-and-a-half-fold leap from a year earlier, according to civil aviation flight information provider Hanglv Zongheng. Most of them were heading to Hong Kong, Macao, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. And the average price of an international flight dropped 8 percent that week from the week before.

All Nippon Airways will soon start flying between Tokyo and Beijing again, the Japanese carrier said yesterday. Cambodia Angkor Air is resuming flights between Phnom Penh and Haikou, southern Hainan province from Feb. 19. While Turkish Airlines, Emirates and Qatar Airways will increase the number of round-trip flights between China and their respective capitals of Istanbul, Dubai and Doha.

Delta Air Lines will start flying directly to China once more from March 3. And United Airlines restarted its flights between Shanghai and San Francisco at the end of last month, amounting to four flights a week.

Air France is recommencing daily flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong from July 1, the French carrier said on Jan. 30. While British Airways will resume flying to Shanghai from April 23 and to Beijing from June 3.

Editor: Kim Taylor