Air travel emerges from turbulence of pandemic

Fueled by a boom in Chinese travelers visiting Japan this summer, extra direct flights have been launched between the two countries — including to niche destinations — with more flights expected to be added to satisfy the growing demand, industry players said.

The rush to visit Japan has been fueled by Chinese students taking their summer vacations, and the favorable exchange rate with the Japanese yen, making hotels, meals and attractions more affordable.

The resurgence of Japan as a travel destination for Chinese travelers also follows the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

In the first half of this year, a record 17.78 million international travelers visited Japan. During the same period in 2019, before the pandemic, the number was 16.63 million, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

The main sources of international visitors were South Korea, China and the United States, the organization said.

The strong outbound travel demand has prompted more Chinese airlines to launch new direct flights and increase the frequencies of current flights to Japanese cities, including smaller ones.

Shanghai-based private budget carrier, Spring Airlines, operates direct flights connecting Shanghai, and Takamatsu and Saga in Japan. The flight capacity on the two routes has exceeded 90 percent recently, with most of the passengers Chinese leisure travelers, the airline said.

The carrier recently increased its number of daily round-trip flights from Shanghai to Osaka to five, up from two last year, after adding extra flights to Japan ahead of the peak season.

"Before the summer, we launched new flights connecting Shanghai with Fukuoka and Okinawa," said Mao Yi, head of communications at Spring Airlines.

"Still, the China-Japan routes of international flights have not fully recovered from the pandemic. We will do our best to resume more international flights soon, and provide passengers with more choices," Mao said.

Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines operates direct flights connecting Shanghai Pudong International Airport with smaller Japanese cities such as Shizuoka, Okayama and Komatsu, in addition to direct flights to major Japanese cities.

Juneyao Airlines, another Shanghai-based Chinese private carrier, operates direct flights connecting Shanghai to Sapporo and Hokkaido.

"The main travel demand for smaller Japanese cities comes from leisure travelers," said Lin Zhijie, a civil aviation industry analyst and writer for Carnoc, a major civil aviation website.

"Niche Japanese cities boast rich tourism resources and different features, and those smaller Japanese cities are equipped with airports, making it more convenient to launch direct flights. The total number of available flights connecting China and Japan still can't meet the travel demand between the two countries," Lin said, adding this includes business as well as leisure travel demand.

Currently, the main bottleneck is the ground support capability in Japan. There are hopes within the industry that more flights will be launched in the near future to further meet the expanding demand.