(Yicai Global) May 31 -- Shanghai’s airports will fully re-open tomorrow as the city’s two-month-long lockdown due to an outbreak of Covid-19 is finally lifted. The passenger load factor for international flights, which refers to the proportion of seats filled, has been raised to 60 percent from the previous 40 percent, several foreign airlines told Yicai Global.

From tomorrow, the normal operations of the city’s railways and airports will be resumed, the municipal government said today.

Around 80 percent of regular flights have already been scheduled for the first two weeks of June, according to data from aviation software Flight Master. Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport has arranged 7,716 flights and Shanghai Pudong International Airport 10,317. In the same period last year, the two airports had 9,513 and 13,701 scheduled flights respectively.

A number of domestic flights restarted in mid-May, especially by those carriers based in Shanghai. Juneyao Airlines, for instance, has already resumed flights to Changsha, Nanning, Sanya, Qingdao, Zhengzhou and other cities. But the number of passenger flights was down 63.9 percent on May 30 from the same period last year, according to Flight Master.

There will, though, be another fuel charge increase, the fourth in four months, for domestic flights. Several airlines have said they will charge an extra CNY80 (USD12) per person for distances less than 800 kilometers and CNY140 (USD21) per person for distances more than 800 kilometers. The fees are now seven times what they were at the beginning of the year and have reached an all-time high for short-haul routes.

Carriers have little choice as aviation fuel prices are the highest they have been in a decade, rising to CNY8,441 (USD1,267) per ton in June from CNY4,700 per ton at the beginning of the year.

Editor: Kim Taylor