The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has announced there will be further increases in direct connections between China and Canada.
Air Canada is due to increase its Vancouver-Shanghai frequency from four weekly flights to seven starting from 7 December, while also resuming daily Vancouver-Beijing flights from 15 January next year.
In addition, Chinese carriers are also racing to secure more flights to Canada.
As Reuters reports, this comes as Canadian authorities finally put an end to restrictions imposed in 2022 on the number of direct flights permitted between the two countries.
During this time, Chinese carriers were only able to perform six round-trip flights a week to Canada, with no direct flights between Beijing and Canada permitted.
The CAAC said the increase in flights will help both sides meet their economic and trade needs and promote further recovery of the air transport market between the two countries.
Lin Jian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, said at a conference: “We value Canada’s initiative and hope Canada will continue to create good conditions for normal personnel exchanges between both countries.”
Although the airlines are yet to make formal announcements, the policy change is already showing its effects.
Chinese news agency Global Times reported that flight searches to Canada have increased drastically on China’s online travel agency Qunar.com.
Flights to Toronto saw a 110 per cent rise in searches while flights to Vancouver saw a 150 per cent rise.
Besides Air Canada’s Vancouver-Shanghai route, Canada is currently served by six Chinese carriers with one weekly flight each from their respective hubs.
Air China, Hainan Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and XiamenAir serve Vancouver from Beijing (via Shenyang), Shenzhen, Chengdu and Xiamen respectively.
China Eastern and China Southern serve Toronto from Shanghai and Guangzhou.
