(Yicai Global) March 27 -- Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport has resumed outbound flights after a three-year suspension because of the coronavirus pandemic.

China Eastern Airlines yesterday operated the first outbound flight from Hongqiao International Airport to Hong Kong.

All flights from Hongqiao to offshore destinations, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan were transferred to Shanghai Pudong International Airport in March 2020 to comply with Covid-19 prevention and control measures.

Eleven carriers, including Air China, China Eastern, Japan Airlines, and Korean Air, will run 314 flights per week from Hongqiao International Airport to international cities, the two special administrative regions, and Taiwan during this year’s International Air Transport Association summer schedule, 22 more than in the same period of 2019, Yicai Global learned from the airport authorities.

In China, 169 domestic and foreign airlines are scheduled to operate 117,222 passenger and cargo flights a week during the IATA summer schedule between yesterday and Oct. 28, an increase of 21 percent from the same period of 2019, according to figures from the Civil Aviation Administration.

Hongqiao International Airport and Pudong International Airport will gradually resume flights between Shanghai and 11 international cities, including Boston, Munich, Milan, Jakarta, Bali, and Jeju, in the IATA summer schedule, Yicai Global learned.

But China’s international flight numbers has not yet recovered to the pre-pandemic level. The figure rose 6.3 percent between March 13 and 19 from the previous week, but accounted for only 17 percent of the total number of flights operated in the same period of 2019, according to flight tracking app Flight Master.

Meanwhile, the cost of flying internationally has tumbled. Air tickets for the Labor Day holiday are priced at an average of CNY4,178 (USD608), down 68 percent from a year earlier, Flight Master data showed.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione