International air transport expected to make steady recovery

Officials said on Friday that the optimized immigration policies adopted by China are accelerating the recovery of cross-border related businesses.

Since the optimized immigration management policy took effect on Jan 8, the number of people entering and exiting the country has shown steady growth and orderly recovery, said Liu Haitao, director general of the Department of Frontier Inspection and Management of the National Immigration Administration, at a news conference in Beijing.

From Jan 8 to Jan 12, immigration authorities nationwide inspected 490,000 people entering and leaving the country each day, up 48.9 percent before the implementation of the new policies. The number of daily arrivals at seaports, land and air ports increased respectively. Specifically, the arrivals were slightly higher than departures, Liu said.

"As the Spring Festival holiday approaches, the ports are expected to usher in a peak of people entering and leaving the country. NIA has ordered immigration authorities at all levels to strengthen their customs clearance, to ensure that Chinese citizens can queue for entry and exit customs clearance for no more than 30 minutes. Meanwhile, guidance and prompt, as well as the monitoring of the flow of customs clearance will also be strengthened," Liu said.

Besides, the businesses of visa applications and travel endorsement applications to Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions have been restored. There has been a sharp increase in the number of related businesses, and the immigration authority has been prepared to actively cope with the situation.

"Recently, some countries have imposed entry-exit restrictions on Chinese travelers. We also remind the citizens to know the entry policies of relevant countries in advance, and make reasonable arrangements for the country and the time of travel to avoid inconvenience and unnecessary losses," he said.

Kong Fanwei, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's flight standards department, said at the news conference that the CAA has also actively adjusted industry-related policies based on the actual situation such as the restrictions on the number of flights, routes and load factors, to ensure that the steady resumption of international passenger flights and international flights are on the rise.

According to Kong, the number of pre-planned international passenger flights this week was 563, with flights to 63 countries, returning to 6 percent and 87.5 percent of pre-epidemic levels respectively.

"In the coming period of time, with the further increase of demand for the international aviation market, it is expected that international air transport production will continue to maintain a steady recovery," Kong said.