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Today (June 4, Beijing time), the website of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) published a notice scrapping the "five ones" rule!

Under the new rules, airlines are no longer treated differently based on whether they were still operating flights on March 12. Instead, all airlines are allowed to operate one flight per week, entering China through one domestic city that is capable of handling the flight. This rule will remain in effect through the end of October 2020. In other words, be prepared for this capacity to continue for quite some time. It is foreseeable that some European and Middle Eastern airlines may begin gradually resuming China routes. Our capacity will still see a significant increase. At the same time, we expect that this morning's U.S. Department of Transportation order suspending Chinese airline routes will be rescinded and will not affect actual flight operations.

More interestingly, this new rule has a so-called "circuit breaker" mechanism: if five or more people on the same flight test positive, the flight will be suspended for one week; if 10 or more people test positive, the flight will be suspended for four weeks. Presumably, this is meant to prevent large-scale outbreaks from entering and to encourage airlines to take every possible measure to avoid cross-infection.

If there are zero positive cases for three consecutive weeks, the service can be increased to two flights per week.

Hopefully this will ease the difficulty for those who need to return to China.

Full repost

All transport airlines:

In order to continue epidemic prevention and control work while facilitating international travel, and in accordance with the requirements of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council and relevant provisions of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Frontier Health and Quarantine, the Law of the People's Republic of China on Emergency Response, and the Civil Aviation Law of the People's Republic of China, the number of international passenger flights is hereby adjusted as follows:

1. Chinese and foreign airlines included in the flight plan of the "International Flight Information Release (Phase 5)" (hereinafter, "Phase 5") published on the CAAC website on March 12 may, based on the above flight plan, continue to operate international passenger flights to and from China in accordance with the following principles: each domestic airline may keep only one route to any one country, and each route may operate no more than one flight per week; each foreign airline may keep only one route to China, and each route may operate no more than one flight per week. Flights on the above routes may adjust domestic and overseas points within the scope of the company's operating permit.

2. Starting from June 8, 2020, all foreign airlines not included in the "Phase 5" flight plan may, within the scope of their operating permits, choose one port city with receiving capacity (the specific list of cities can be found on the CAAC website) and operate one international passenger route flight per week.

3. Airlines whose route operating permits and takeoff/landing slots were reduced due to the epidemic will continue to retain those permits and slots.

4. Please have each airline submit a preflight schedule to the CAAC Operations Monitoring Center for operations through October 24, 2020, in accordance with the above requirements.

5. Airlines shall implement all prevention and control measures in accordance with the CAAC's "Technical Guidelines for Epidemic Prevention and Control of Transport Airlines," and shall comply with the requirements of the "Notice on Chinese Citizens Filling Out Epidemic Prevention Health Information Before Taking Flights Back to China" jointly issued by the CAAC and the General Administration of Customs.

6. To prevent flight entry points from becoming overly concentrated and to ensure that port cities have the necessary comprehensive support capacity for international flights and arriving passengers, airlines must obtain a "Confirmation Letter on Epidemic Prevention and Control Support Capacity" (template attached) issued by the provincial joint prevention and control mechanism office or the epidemic response leading group office where the port airport is located before arranging newly added routes and flights.

7. Starting from June 8, 2020, flight incentive and circuit breaker measures will be implemented.

1) The CAAC, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Health Commission, General Administration of Customs, National Immigration Administration, and others will jointly establish a special working mechanism to implement circuit breaker and incentive measures for flights based on passengers' nucleic acid test results after international flights land.

2) Incentive measures. For flights on the same route operated by an airline, if the number of passengers who test positive by nucleic acid testing after entry is zero for three consecutive weeks, the number of flights may be increased by one per week within the range permitted by the route operating license, up to a maximum of two flights per week.

3) Circuit breaker measures. For flights on the same route operated by an airline, if the number of passengers who test positive by nucleic acid testing after entry reaches five, operations on that route for that airline will be suspended for one week; if it reaches 10, operations on that route for that airline will be suspended for four weeks. The flight capacity subject to the "circuit breaker" may not be reassigned to other routes. After the "circuit breaker" period ends, the airline may resume the one-flight-per-week schedule.

8. On the premise that risks are controllable and receiving support capacity is in place, flight increases for some eligible countries may be moderately expanded.

9. This notice shall take effect on the date of issuance. The "Notice on Continuing to Reduce the Number of International Passenger Flights During the Epidemic Prevention and Control Period" (CAAC [2020] No. 12), issued by the CAAC on March 26, 2020, shall be invalid at the same time.

CAAC

June 4, 2020

Entry airports

The entry airports approved by the CAAC are: Beijing, Changzhou, Chengdu, Dalian, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Guiyang, Harbin, Hangzhou, Hefei, Hohhot, Jinan, Kunming, Lanzhou, Nanchang, Nanjing, Nanning, Nantong, Ningbo, Qingdao, Quanzhou, Xiamen, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Tianjin, Wenzhou, Urumqi, Wuxi, Wuhan, Xi'an, and Yanji.