Some airlines are to resume their pre-COVID-19 schedule to China, following the decision of Chinese authorities to lift restrictions after years of a ‘zero-Covid” policy.

Various reports say that the first number of passengers to arrive under the new rules arrived at airports in Guangzhou and Shenzhen on Sunday, with no one subjected to COVID-19 tests or the hitherto mandatory five-day quarantine.

Ethiopian Airlines, on Tuesday, announced that the frequency of its flights to Chinese cities will increase as of February 06, 2023 ultimately returning to the pre-COVID-19 levels on March 01, 2023.

From February 06, 2023, Ethiopian Airlines will operate daily flights to Guangzhou while increasing its weekly flights to Beijing and Shanghai to four each and maintains the trice weekly operation to Chengdu.

Starting from March 01, 2023, the flights will surge back to the pre-COVID19 levels with daily flights to Beijing and Shanghai as well as ten and four weekly flights to Guangzhou and Chengdu respectively. Accordingly, Ethiopian will operate a total of 28 weekly passenger flights to China when the services are fully restored.

Regarding the increase of flight frequencies, Ethiopian Group CEO Mesfin Tasew said: “We are glad that we are ramping up the frequencies of our flights to Chinese cities thanks to the easing of flight restrictions by the Government of China.

China is one of the largest markets for Ethiopian Airlines outside Africa, and the increase in flight frequencies will help revive the trade, investment, cultural and bilateral cooperation between Africa and China in the post-Covid era. Thanks to our large network across Africa, the increase in the number of flights to Chinese cities will bring Africa and China closer. We are keen to further expand our service to China going forward.”