China - never a dull moment!

[TheEmu]

Good grief - look who as surfaced!

Longing Lu? Longyang Lu? Let me ask moondog / FT China group

Yes... Longyang Lu... I'll blame autocorrect...

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Courtesy of Andy in FT WeChat Group:

Shared with me by a friend working in the aviation industry: "At the briefing by the Int'l Dept. of the Central Committee of the CPC yesterday [mid-January] Mdm. Liang Nan, DG of the CAAC's Transport Dept., shared the CAAC's targets for int'l flight resumption rate, namely,
1. At present: 563 flights/week, representing 6% of the pre-pandemic level
2. By Feb: about 1,000 flights/week, 11%
3. Summer/autumn period: 1,300-2,300 flights/week, 15-25%
4. H2 2023 (a bit overlapped with summer/autumn period): accelerated recovery"

 

[Buzzard]

At 53% it might not be a dull moment but it will most likely be blurred

 

[Cruiser Elite]

OMG - is this ever the end of an era - Last Call Tonight Ahead of SLT Bar Street Closure

 

[MEL_Traveller]

OMG - is this ever the end of an era - Last Call Tonight Ahead of SLT Bar Street Closure

Sad. Been happening to lots of bars and areas since about 2013/2014

 

[Cruiser Elite]

HK to fully resume cross-border travel with Chinese mainland

-

mp.weixin.qq.com

 

[Cruiser Elite]

FFS - Seriously?

Welcome to China - the land of COMPLICATION and CONTRADICTION!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

But where would they find the crew for these flights if they were to resume? Would you take the risk as flight or cabin crew that a return to policies of just a couple months ago could see you in an instant and prolonged lockdown? A two day layover could be two months. No thanks!

 

[Cruiser Elite]

MEL any chance the airlines who are attempting to resume these flights might have a better handle on it than you?

Another lockdown in China for 2 months? Are you a betting person? Name the amount and I will cover it

 

[Cruiser Elite]

For MEL - This Poll Points to Sharp Covid Decline in Beijing

 

[MEL_Traveller]

MEL any chance the airlines who are attempting to resume these flights might have a better handle on it than you?

Another lockdown in China for 2 months? Are you a betting person? Name the amount and I will cover it

There’s two aspects to resuming a flight… commercial considerations, and health and safety from a crew perspective.

Asian carriers are ok given many of their crews will round-trip. But would you take the risk as a US or european crew member you’d get locked down for an extended period? It’s one thing for an airline to want to offer a flight, another to get crew willing to operate.

As for what China says… who knows. A promise not to have another lockdown is worthless, regardless of what the data says (we saw that for an extra year of lockdowns).

 

[mel-world]

Could also be that Chinese Airlines do not have planes out of storage and/or crew returned in sufficient numbers yet so need to delay resumption of competitors flights till they are ready. Bad for business though.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

I guess AU will also join the clan eventually - PCR-free travel expands to more countries from March 15

 

[OZDUCK]

I guess AU will also join the clan eventually - PCR-free travel expands to more countries from March 15

Now Australia is to drop the requirement for tests inbound from PRC I would think that it would be relatively soon.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Line at Chinese Visa office in MEL:

Memo to self - do not lose physical APEC Card then you won’t have to line up for visa - post May 1 no lining up anyway- ah China - the land of ‘Complication and Contradiction’

 

[Cruiser Elite]

WOW - a train system that does actually work on time


No pictures can ever do justice to the enormity of the departure halls at the major Chinese train stations - today leaving Hongqiao heading to Linping South a suburb of Hangzhou.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

And a flying system that shames many others - arr SHA for dep to PEK:


They knew I was coming and had prepared for me:


And what is a VIP Chinese Lounge if it don't have VIP Wine?

Unfortunately, this Great Wall aint worth visiting

And arr into PEK:

 

[RooFlyer]

They knew I was coming and had prepared for me:

Its the American Way

 

[defurax]

Love the typo on the red label: "L'UNON" instead of "L'UNION"

 

[TheEmu]

Both airports look a lot quieter than the railway station.