After a year of talks, China and Canada have made progress on increasing flights between the two countries as pandemic-era restrictions and political spats fade.
Driving the news: Air Canada will bring back daily flights from Vancouver to Beijing in January and add more flights from Vancouver to Shanghai starting in December. Meanwhile, Chinese airlines have been accelerating applications for additional flights.
- In 2019, flights between Canada and China sat at around 106 per week. As of this month, there were fewer than 10 return flights weekly between the two countries.
Why it matters: Chinese travellers spent nearly $2 billion a year in Canada pre-pandemic, making them the second-highest-spending tourist group after Americans. Last year, only 225,100 Chinese visitors came to Canada, down from ~750,000 tourists before COVID.
Bottom line: Flights between China and Canada are currently around 90% lower than 2019 levels, but Bloomberg analysts say the recent regulatory changes could help the market for air travel between the two countries bounce back to pre-pandemic levels.—LA