Search results on Air Macau’s official website suggest that the local airline is preparing to increase the number of flights to some mainland cities starting March 16.
As reported by mainland newspaper Chengdu Daily, these cities include Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province.
After the outbreak of Covid-19, Air Macau reduced the number of flights to mainland cities, completely suspending direct flights to Wuhan and Changsha, among other cities.
This week, Air Macau will operate three flights to Chengdu, with one additional weekly flight joining the schedule from March 16.
Currently, the airline offers three trips per week to Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang: one on Tuesdays, one on Saturdays and one on Sundays. The frequency will increase to one trip to Hangzhou per day on March 16.
Three of the four direct-administered municipalities of China – namely Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin – will have daily flights to Macau, operated by either Air Macau and/or other airlines. The fourth direct-administered municipality, Chongqing, will be the only one for which the reduced number of flights to Macau will continue.
Although the number of flights is planned to increase from next week, the frequency will still be far lower than before. Previously, Air Macau alone operated more than one trip per day to cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Hangzhou.
Yesterday, many of the capital-level cities of mainland provinces partially resumed work.
On March 6, a total of 6,403 civil aircraft took off at mainland airports, 271 more than on March 4.
Flight recovery is likely to benefit the rebooting of Macau’s tourism industry, but the gain may not be significant immediately.
On January 31, mainland China suspended travel visa applications for mainland residents, including the important Individual Visit Scheme. As of today, Beijing has not yet revealed or indicated when the visa application program will resume. Analysts suggested last week that the mainland authority could lift the restrictions suddenly, or in a phased approach starting as early as next month.
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