(Yicai Global) Aug. 26 -- Domestic passenger and cargo flights have started again from Nanjing Lukou International Airport, which cancelled all flights on July 21 after 17 workers were found to be infected with the novel coronavirus, sparking a nationwide outbreak.

A Chinese Eastern Airlines plane bound for Qingdao in northeastern Shandong province was the first to take off from the airport this morning, followed shortly afterwards by a China Postal Airlines freight aircraft headed for Kunming, southwestern Yunnan province, Yicai Global learned.

Not many flights are scheduled for the next few days as the re-opening was only announced yesterday. International flights are still suspended as the arrival terminals are renovated to meet higher standards of epidemic control.

The Zhangjiajie Hehua International Airport, some 860 kilometers away in central Hunan province, will also reopen soon. Although airport staff have said they have received no such notification, a number of carriers have already started to offer tickets from Zhangjiajie from Aug. 30, Yicai Global found out.

The airport serves the popular tourist resort Zhangjiajie, known for its unusual mountain landscape that featured in the movie Avatar. The city went into lockdown last month as it became part of the wider outbreak of Covid-19 that started in Nanjing.

The resumption of flights is good news for the sector, industry insiders told Yicai Global. Carriers have just four months left of the year to try to turn a profit, they added.

The Delta variant outbreak in Nanjing, which has been traced back to staff cleaning an Air China flight from Moscow without following proper procedure, quickly spread to more than 10 other provinces. It decimated the peak summer travel season as people were urged to stay home and some areas went into lockdown.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor