General

New forces in international trade! Since January 8, China's international routes have accelerated and the number of international flights has increased steadily. According to the data of the international flight data platform OAG, in January, there were 358 international routes with at least one scheduled flight departing from China. China opened 87 international routes on January 1, and increased to 120 by January 31.

This trend continued in February. On February 11, Shaanxi's first international route to Bishkek - Xi'an to Bishkek international flight took off from Xianyang International Airport; From February 13, Air France resumed the direct flight service of the Shanghai-Paris route; From February 15, Qatar Airways increased the number of flights from Guangzhou to Doha to 4 per week; From February 22, Hebei Airlines will fly the route from Hangzhou to Singapore; HNA plans to open the international route from Shenzhen to Phnom Penh from February 22

According to the Several Measures for Restoring International Passenger Flights previously issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, from January 8, 2023, Chinese and foreign airlines that have obtained the operating license of international routes can apply for resuming the operation of the company's approved international passenger flights in the winter and spring of 2019. At the same time, the Civil Aviation Administration will resume accepting applications from domestic and foreign airlines for new or additional international passenger routes since the summer and autumn flight season of 2023.

In this regard, industry insiders predict that under the favorable policies of "restart" of inbound and outbound tourism, China's international flight volume is expected to return to 50% - 60% of the pre-epidemic level in 2023. The number of international flights in 2024 may exceed the level in 2019, and the performance of airlines is expected to rebound significantly.

In order to help Chinese airlines fly around international routes, restore China's connectivity with the world, and support the sustained recovery of the aviation industry and tourism industry, on February 8, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) established an aviation industry restart working group, which is composed of 13 airline representatives from Chinese Mainland, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, and senior executives from IATA North Asia. Following the principle of "consultation and sharing", members will exchange work experience through the working group platform, collect the needs related to the restart of international routes, and negotiate practical and effective solutions.

New forces in international trade! At the first meeting of the IAA North Asia Aviation Industry Restart Working Group held on the same day, Xie Xingquan, vice president of IATA North Asia, said: "Helping airlines operate safely, reliably, efficiently and economically under clear rules and providing professional support to the industry is an important function of IATA. IATA is making every effort to cooperate with the deployment of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). According to the needs of Chinese airlines to restart international routes, while sharing industry best practices and providing relevant suggestions, IATA's worldwide professional teams and resources are used to help Chinese airlines do Good communication and coordination to provide support for the smooth resumption of navigation. "

New forces in international trade! At the meeting, the representatives of the working group of China Airlines shared the bottlenecks encountered by the international route go-around, especially the flight schedule. In view of the different degree of recovery between China and other regions, IATA is actively coordinating and calling on the competent authorities and airports of all countries to pay attention to the tail effect of the epidemic, and proposes to give corresponding exemption measures to Chinese airlines during the transition period. With the large-scale go-around of international flights, airlines are also facing challenges in terms of safety and operation, such as flight planning, personnel training, operation control, ground operation, maintenance and aircraft airworthiness. Among them, the long-term lack of professionals will be a huge challenge for civil aviation to cope with the surge in passenger flow in the short term.

Xie Xingquan said that in order to help airlines cope with the above challenges, IATA has issued a series of working documents in relevant professional fields, such as "Prepare for the industry restart in China", "IATA related recommendations and standards · industry restart guide", for the reference and use of airlines. At the same time, IATA called on the competent authorities to pay attention to the possible airspace congestion and flight delays with the increase of flights, as well as the problems of special airspace route detour, to help airlines improve operational efficiency. In addition, the competent authorities, airports and other stakeholders also need to introduce supporting exemption policies to allow airlines to make certain adjustments to operations and operations to gradually adapt to the recovery of operations. "Although the factors hindering the recovery of global connectivity still exist in the short term, we are full of hope for a comprehensive and sustained recovery of the aviation industry," Xie Xingquan said.

New forces in international trade! In addition, IATA also shared data platforms and measures to support the digital transformation of the aviation industry at the meeting, such as "IATA Global Aircraft Bump Sensing Platform" and "GADM Global Aviation Data Management" to improve flight safety, and One ID to meet the non-contact and senseless travel needs of air passengers in the post-epidemic era through technical means.

New forces in international trade! Spring and Autumn Airlines, Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and other airlines have been recruiting staff since last December, including flight attendants, aviation safety officers, domestic and foreign flight attendants, flight cadets, etc. On February 8, Spring Airlines held the first recruitment activity of the 2023 Spring Recruitment Fair, and launched six positions, including cabin crew, safety officer, trainee maintenance engineer, ground service business, algorithm engineer and software development engineer. The relevant person in charge of Spring Airlines said, "At present, the number of resumes posted on posts has basically returned to the level of the same period in 2019. Only the posts of flight attendants and safety officers have attracted more than 2000 people to register online."