The Chinese airline Capital Airlines announced this Sunday that the direct flight between Portugal and China will now have as its destination Hangzhou cityon the east coast of the Asian country, instead of Xi’an.
The direct link between the two countries was launched in July 2017, initially for Hangzhou, but in 2019, the flight changed to Xi’anin central China.
Thus, the flight lands again in Hangzhou, departing from Lisbon and with a frequency of once a week.
Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang province, one of the most prosperous in China, with around 53 million inhabitants.
Under the “zero cases” strategy of Covid-19, China has kept its borders practically closed since March 2020. The country authorizes only one flight per city and per airline, which reduced by 98% the number of international air connections to the countrycompared to the pre-pandemic period.
Anyone arriving in China will also be required to self-quarantine for seven days, at government-designated facilities, and another three at home.
The direct air link between Portugal and China resumed on June 12 after being suspended for more than six months.
Xi’an authorities suspended the link with Lisbon on December 25, 2021, at a time when the region was facing an outbreak of Covid-19. The city only resumed international connections in June.
However, flights to China are subject to the “circuit breaker” (‘switch’, in Portuguese), in which when five or more cases are detected on board, the connection is suspended for two weeks. If there are ten or more cases, the call is suspended for one month.
On the first flight, ten positive cases were detected on board, for which the Chinese authorities suspended the connection for a period of one month, starting on June 27. On the second flight, which took place on June 19, five cases were detected, prompting the authorities to impose an additional two-week suspension period.
Source: Observadora
