Beijing is to allow in a select number of international flights again after a five-month ban. China’s Civil Aviation Administration announced on Wednesday (09.09.2020) that flights from eight countries will be allowed to land in the capital from today.
The countries are Canada, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Greece, Pakistan, Thailand, and Cambodia, all of which have been deemed safe to resume routes to China due to their low Covid-19 numbers.
A total ban on international flights landing in Beijing was enforced in late March over concerns that COVID cases would be imported from foreign countries. Although the ban has now been lifted for the above-mentioned countries, however, testing measures have been stepped up.
All incoming passengers will now need a negative COVID test from three days, rather than the previous five days, before departure. They will also have to commit to a 14-day quarantine at a facility on the outskirts of Beijing on arrival.
Local government spokesman Xu Hejian said passengers would be allowed to leave if they test negative after 14 days but will still need to submit a daily temperature report for a week.
Xu added that only Chinese nationals or citizens of the origin countries would be allowed to board the flights. Passenger numbers on each flight will also be capped at 500, with a maximum of 1,000 international arrivals to the city each day.
As is the case across the country, any carrier running a flight with more than five positive cases will see its route suspended for one week, while those with more than 10 cases will be suspended for a month.
Any flight bound for Beijing with a positive case onboard will also be diverted to a neighboring city.
