Very few U.S.-China flights are back despite the end of Covid

BEIJING — Less than 6% of U.S. flights to and from mainland China resumed in 2019, according to a Nomura report.

In contrast, the report cites Airline data as of May 22 showing that flight frequencies between mainland China and Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Italy have almost returned to pre-pandemic levels or more.

“We think the geopolitical factors of China’s outbound travel recovery … are clearly at play here,” Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, and his team said in a note on Monday.

In March, China brokered the restoration of diplomatic ties between Middle Eastern rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. Beijing has refused to condemn Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, while calling for peace talks.

Meanwhile, tensions between the U.S. and China have heated up. China’s ambassador to the United States took office last week after about six months without a replacement.

This past weekend, a China International Airlines The flight between Beijing and New York marks the Chinese airline’s first direct passenger on the route in months.this is one of them Four new weekly flights The U.S. Department of Transportation approved Chinese airlines’ routes between the two countries in May.

Previously, the only scheduled direct flights between mainland China and New York by Chinese airlines since the pandemic came from Shanghai and Guangzhou. Nonstop cross-border flights also serve Los Angeles.

In March, Delta Air Lines announced the resumption of nonstop flights between the U.S. and China — from Shanghai to Seattle and Detroit.

Overall, international flights in mainland China remained 40% below 2019 levels, Nomura reported.

Analysts expect that level to climb back up to 70% by the end of the year as international flights resume around the summer holidays.