China will add up to nine magnetic levitation railroads of over 1,000 kilometers in total length in the long term to boost regional connectivity and high-end equipment manufacturing. They will include a tourist railway line in Yunnan province, and intercity passenger lines and urban mass transit lines in Shanxi, Xinjiang and Sichuan. China aims to run high-speed maglev trains at 600 km per hour by the end of this year. Zhejiang province announced it will invest CNY100 billion to build a maglev railroad connecting Hangzhou and Shanghai. It will take about 15 minutes to complete the 162-km journey, said Feng Hao, Researcher at the National Development and Reform Commission’s Institute of Comprehensive Transportation.

Compared with standard bullet trains, the high-speed maglev trains have advantages which include reduced noise and vibration, and lower maintenance costs because they do not use wheels but hover centimeters above the track through the use of magnets, avoiding friction. Aside from the Yangtze River Delta region, the Development and Reform Commission of Shenzhen plans to introduce maglev rail lines to the Second Guangzhou-Shenzhen High Speed Railway to ease the operational pressure of regular and bullet trains in the area. The Second Guangzhou-Shenzhen High Speed Railway is to be built in 2025 and is expected to be completed in 2030. Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, also intends to launch maglev services between the city and Chongqing in the future.

China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, the country’s largest rolling stock manufacturer by production volume, is also developing wheel technology-based high-speed trains. The Europeans and Canadians have failed to compete with China in this field in recent years, said Chen Jian, Professor specializing in railways at Chongqing Jiaotong University. Japan remains a strong rival though in developing regular bullet and high-speed maglev trains. It has successfully tested 500 km/h and 603 km/h maglev trains with cryogenic superconducting technologies in recent years. Japan plans to build a high-speed maglev train line between Tokyo and Nagoya in 2027 or later. In addition to three existing maglev railroads in Beijing, Shanghai and Changsha, two short-distance low-speed maglev railways are being constructed in Qingyuan, Guangdong province, and Fenghuang county, Hunan province. Both are scheduled to be operational in 2021. China laid a total of 1,178 km of new railway lines, including 605 km of high-speed lines in the first half of this year. The country plans to lay at least 4,400 km of new railway lines in 2020, including 2,300 km of high-speed lines, the China Daily reports.

In other railway news, China plans to invest CNY200 million to build China-Europe railway distribution hubs in five cities to better use railway resources and reduce costs, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner. The five cities – Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Xian and Urumqi – are all major cities for China-Europe freight train services or key logistics channels. As more cities start to run freight trains between China and Europe, intensive competition has emerged in transportation prices and railway resources, said Wu Jingyu, Director of the Asia-Europe land bridge international freight train coordination service center, at the China Communications and Transportation Association.

The construction of transportation hubs will enable cities to share resources, cut costs and improve efficiency. According to Wang Guowen, Director of the Center for Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the Shenzhen-based think tank China Development Institute, most China-Europe freight trains pass through Urumqi without stopping, and the establishment of the new hub will enable domestic and foreign goods to travel on the trains at the same time to reduce costs. Wang also suggested that part of the CNY200 million in funding be used to build platforms for information sharing and coordinate trains running among the five cities, the China Daily reports.

China’s domestic aviation market is taking off on a steady recovery amid nationwide efforts to resume work, yet the situation of overseas flights remains gloomy, industry data showed. The average flying rate in June jumped to about 75% of its normal level, according to VariFlight, but overseas flights remain in scarce, with a flying rate of 18.3% of normal capacity. In June, average landing and takeoff volumes at domestic airports reached 22,470 aircraft, an increase of 18.8% compared to May, with maximum daily volumes nearing 2016 levels. The average passenger load factor was 66.85% of normal capacity, a 3.17 percentage point increase from May. The number of domestic flights taking off and landing in China now exceeds that of the U.S. by about 21.5%. Two airports, Jiangbei International Airport in Chongqing and Phoenix International Airport in Sanya in Hainan province, led the recovery, with their numbers of outbound flights bouncing back to over 80% of last year’s volumes, according to the VariFlight report. The first quarter of this year was the “darkest moment” for various airlines across the country. Six listed airlines lost a total of more than CNY20 billion and the industry suffered total losses of CNY40 billion.

China Southern Airlines said that flights between major cities have resumed and it has flown 1,310 flights each day on average since June, about 70% of the number of flights it operated at the same time last year. The air carrier expects its traffic in the third quarter to further jump to about 76% of last year’s level. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said China’s carriers posted a 49.9% year-on-year decline in traffic in May, significantly improved from the 64.6% drop recorded in April. However, further improvement has recently been interrupted by flight cancellations to and from Beijing amid an increase in the number of new infections in the city, IATA said.

A number of foreign airlines, including Lufthansa and Air France, have restarted China flights. United Airlines recently announced its schedule for resumed services between San Francisco and Shanghai, with twice-weekly flights starting from July 8. United is the second U.S. carrier after Delta Air Lines to resume flights between Seattle and Shanghai in the period from June 25 to October 24. The U.S. and China will allow four weekly flights between the two countries. Xiamen Airlines said that it is applying to open more routes and increase frequencies to the U.S. in August. It aims to fly from Fuzhou to New York three times per week, and from Xiamen to Los Angeles with a stopover at Qingdao three times per week. It also hopes to increase the frequency of flights, as it currently operates just one weekly flight from Xiamen to Los Angeles, the Global Times reports.

Chinese carriers are adopting various innovative measures to increase their revenue and stay afloat. Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines is planning to sell boxed food at chain supermarket G-Super in Shanghai from this month. It will be the first time that an air-catering firm is selling food at supermarkets in China. All the products have been improved from the regular in-flight meals. Eastern Air Catering, the in-air food supplier of China Eastern, received the food production license in April, and became the first company that can both produce in-flight meals and food for general consumers nationwide. As the number of flights was reduced, the pandemic also affected the business of air-catering firms.

On June 18, China Eastern launched its weekend-unlimited flight passes in the domestic market. Passengers with the flight pass, which cost CNY3,322, can take flights from China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines to a Chinese mainland city with no fixed times on weekends before the end of this year. It is the first such pass introduced in China. The hottest three routes were flights from Shanghai to Chengdu, Sichuan province, Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and Xian, Shaanxi province. On several flights from Shanghai to Chengdu, the passenger load factor was higher than 90%, with most of the passengers using the pass.

Additionally, carriers are selling several products such as airplane models, porcelain, handwoven bags and lanterns through live-streaming sessions. Shenzhen Airlines has conducted at least five live-streaming sessions on Fliggy, the online travel agency arm of Alibaba Group. It sold discounted business-class tickets and some derivative products the airline developed by itself, the China Daily reports.

International airlines are starting to resume flights to China after a loosening of aviation restrictions. Lufthansa restarted flights to China last week, flying once a week between Frankfurt and Shanghai in the first regular scheduled flights operated by the German carrier since the pandemic began. “The flights between Shanghai and Frankfurt are hopefully only the first of further Lufthansa Group connections in the coming weeks and months between mainland China and our home markets Germany, Austria, and Switzerland,” said Veli Polat, Lufthansa’s Sales Manager for Greater China. United Airlines will resume its route between San Francisco and Shanghai, via Seoul, beginning on July 8, while Delta Air Lines restarted its China flights last week with twice-weekly trips to Shanghai. This was possible after China and the U.S. settled a dispute over aviation travel, even as bilateral relations worsen. In a reciprocal arrangement, two flights per week for each airline will be permitted. Other foreign airlines will be allowed a basic frequency of one flight per week.

“Resuming service to Shanghai from the United States is a significant step in rebuilding our international network,” said Patrick Quayle, United’s Vice President of international network and alliances. Chinese carriers are operating four flights between China and the U.S.: Air China’s Beijing-Los Angeles, China Eastern’s Shanghai-New York, China Southern’s Guangzhou-Los Angeles service and Xiamen Air’s Xiamen-Los Angeles flights. Air France and Air New Zealand have also restored their services to Shanghai. Air France restarted its passenger services between Shanghai and Paris on June 18, with a weekly passenger flight operated with Boeing 777-300 wide-body aircraft. Air New Zealand resumed passenger flights between Auckland and Shanghai.

China introduced the “Five Ones” aviation policy at the end of March in an effort to reduce the number of imported coronavirus cases. Just one weekly passenger flight per route, per airline, was permitted into the country. The policy, combined with suspended flights due to collapsed demand, saw the number of international airlines operating passenger routes into China drop from 123 to 28. At the same time, the number of Chinese airlines still flying fell from 30 to 19, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC). In early June, the White House threatened to block flights from Chinese airlines to the U.S. in retaliation for the policy after the U.S. transport department accused China’s aviation authority of failing to grant U.S. carriers such as United Airlines and Delta permission to resume passenger flights to China while Chinese airlines were continuing to operate charter flights.

One day after the White House announcement, the restrictions were loosened to allow one weekly passenger flight from any qualifying international airline, and two per week from U.S. carriers. However, a route “circuit breaker” – based on the number of positive new coronavirus test results from passengers – will still apply. China Southern Airlines’ Dhaka-Guangzhou route was the first to trigger this circuit breaker when 17 passengers from a June 11 flight tested positive for the new coronavirus upon their arrival in Guangzhou. The route has been suspended for four weeks starting from June 22, according to the CAAC, the South China Morning Post reports.

More countries are preparing to open up to foreign visitors, as the number of Covid-19 cases has been declining in some regions. However, industry insiders said it will still be difficult for Chinese to travel abroad in the short term. The European Union is expected to reopen borders on July 1 for travelers from countries where Covid-19 cases are under control. Chinese residents will also be allowed to visit the EU, on the condition Beijing will also allow European citizens to travel to China, Bloomberg reported. But foreigners holding visas or residence permits issued before March 28, 2020 still can’t travel to China and would require new visas which are difficult to obtain, and will only be delivered if the traveler can prove that his presence in China is necessary for diplomatic, economic or humanitarian reasons. However, even if some countries implement an open policy for Chinese tourists, there is a high probability that China will not initiate organized and individual overseas travel, given the risk of overseas epidemics, and the required quarantine time after returning to China, according to Ge Lei, Vice President of the China Tourism Marketing Association, as reported by the Global Times.

After U.S. President Donald Trump said he would bar Chinese airlines from flying to the U.S. starting on June 16, he partly retracted the measure by allowing Chinese airlines to schedule two flights a week to the U.S. The U.S. is unhappy because the Chinese aviation regulator does not yet agree to let U.S. airlines resume the number of services they used to offer before the Covid-19 pandemic. Before the coronavirus epidemic, on average 17,000 people traveled between China and the U.S. every single day and flights connecting the two would take off and land every 17 minutes, Wang Yi, the Chinese Foreign Minister, was quoted as saying in media reports in 2019.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) only allows one weekly passenger flight on one route per airline and carriers can’t schedule more flights than they carried out on March 12. Because U.S. passenger airlines had stopped all flights by March 12, China “effectively precludes U.S. carriers from reinstating scheduled passenger flights to China,” the U.S. Transportation Department said. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have asked to resume flights to China this month. According to the latest CAAC flight plan, as many as 64 international flights could be added this week, bringing total international arrivals to about 33,000 a week. As early as in May, CAAC Deputy Director Li Jian said it would consider increasing international flights as long as imported virus risks are under control.

The CAAC is to implement what it calls a “circuit-breaker and reward mechanism” that could determine the future operations of each airline based on the number of potential Covid-19 cases that are detected among its passengers. For instance, if all passengers on one airline test negative for three weeks straight, the airline will be permitted to add one more flight; if five passengers on a flight test positive, the responsible airline would have to halt operations for a week; if 10 tested positive, the airline would be banned for four weeks. All passengers would have to undergo a nucleic acid test upon arrival.

China’s market could be a “lifesaver” for European airlines, some of whom have been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy under the fallout of Covid-19 that has grounded most planes, industry insiders said. With China steadily restarting its economy and the opening of more chartered flights between China and foreign countries, some European business representatives told the Global Times that they have been looking to China to “play a role” in boosting European carriers’ revenues and for other reforms in Beijing in the post-virus era to ameliorate their finances. Major European airlines including Lufthansa Group and Air France-KLM reported massive net losses in the first quarter due to the pandemic. The operating losses of Lufthansa, the largest European carrier, hit €1.2 billion during the first three months of the year. Industry insiders predict that the second-quarter performance will be worse than the first quarter.

While the recovery of the European aviation market hinges on the extent to which the Covid-19 pandemic is brought under firm control, “what China could do is at some point allow European airlines to resume flights to China under certain testing and quarantine procedures,” Joerg Wuttke, President of the EUCCC, told the Global Times. “When travel resumes, China can play a role. And there is a necessity for a uniform approach when opening up again,” Wuttke added. Under the “Five-One” policy launched by the Chinese government in March that aims to curb imported Covid-19 infections, one European airline can fly to one Chinese city per week, and occasionally chartered flights between China and European nations are allowed. The EUCCC also said in a report that European countries have been looking to upgrade air traffic rights with China. It also urged the aviation regulator in China to reform slot allocation procedures, financial support practices, and the air traffic management system to bring operations more in line with international norms, the Global Times reports.

Two Lufthansa charter flights already landed in China in the past two weeks to return managers and staff of mainly German enterprises to China. They needed special visas to be able to return and were required to stay 14 days in quarantine. One engineer tested positive for the coronavirus upon arrival. All the German passengers took a nucleic acid test before departure, and they will take dual tests (nucleic acid and antibodies) during the quarantine period. A survey by the German Chamber of Commerce in May showed about 2,000 to 2,500 Germany experts, employees and their families want to fly back to China on chartered planes.

There is also a fast track entry mechanism between China and South Korea since May 1. South Koreans are required to take three coronavirus tests – one before departure, one at Chinese customs and the third one before resuming work. They must observe the epidemic prevention rules of local governments in the places where they work.

This overview is based on reporting by the Global Times, China Daily and Shanghai Daily.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 25 officially inaugurated Beijing’s new international airport in the suburb of Daxing. Construction of the airport took five years. The iconic star-like structure – designed by the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid who passed away in 2016 – is the world’s largest single-terminal building. It is the first airport to have two-story departure gates. Beijing Daxing International Airport is expected to eventually become one of the world’s busiest, as its operations relieve pressure on Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA). The first group of travelers who used the new airport were also the first to experience how the latest technologies set it apart from other second long-haul international airports in Tokyo, London, Paris and New York.

The seven-runway facility is expected to handle 72 million passengers a year by 2025. The CNY80 billion facility, 46 kilometers south of downtown Beijing, will ultimately handle over 100 million passengers a year, matching Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States. Despite its size, the single-terminal design allows passengers to transfer to domestic or international flights in as little as 45 minutes, Kong Yue, the airport’s Deputy General Manager said.

China Southern will have 40% of airport slots at Daxing, followed by China Eastern with 30% and other airlines sharing the rest, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). China United Airlines, a subsidiary of China Eastern, will be the first airline to transfer its base of operations to Daxing from Beijing Nanyuan Airport, which will be closed.

Ultra-fast 5G mobile services, advanced facial recognition and smart robotics are some of the hi-tech features at the new airport. Huawei Technologies, China Eastern Airlines and China Unicom have joined forces to introduce a 5G-based smart travel system, which supports the facial recognition technology set-up at the airport’s security gates and check-in stations, as well as a paperless luggage-tracking service. China Mobile has rolled out new wireless base stations covering at least 20 key areas at the airport to support both 4G and 5G mobile users.

Security gates equipped with facial recognition technology can process 260 passengers per hour. The airport has also installed more than 400 self-service check-in machines, which are expected to shorten passengers’ waiting time to about 10 minutes. Passengers can have their faces scanned to check in their luggage, clear security and board the aircraft, which dispenses with showing an ID, holding tickets or scanning QR codes. To use the paperless luggage-tracking service, travelers must first apply for reusable RFID (radio frequency identification) tags to be attached on their baggage. They will also need to log their flight number and destination on their airline’s app before physically dropping off their luggage. Travelers can then track the status of their baggage using the app.

What could be the most anticipated innovation is its deployment of artificial intelligence-powered smart robots, which can work alongside regular airport personnel. One such robot is now being tested to help drivers park and pick up their cars at the terminal’s vast car park. It will reduce average parking times to about two minutes. JD.com’s Smart Parking System app also provides drivers with a real-time map of available parking slots.

Starting in the winter and spring seasons, the airport will serve 116 routes and 112 domestic and foreign destinations. With four runways, 268 parking bays and a vast terminal building covering 700,000 square meters, the new airport is expected to handle 45 million passenger trips a year by 2022 and 72 million by 2025, with international flights accounting for 20% and 40% of the total respectively.

The 41.4-kilometer subway connecting Caoqiao subway station in Fengtai district with Daxing airport went into operation. A high-speed train traveling between Xiong’an and Tianjin also stops at the airport. The wider area surrounding the airport will be developed as an “airport economic zone”. The government hopes the new zone will be a hi-tech hub for industries such as electronics manufacturing and logistics.