With the statement made by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, it was reported that the restrictions on the number of flights and passengers on international flights due to the epidemic will be ended.
The National Health Commission of China, on the other hand, announced on December 26, 2022 that Kovid-19 will cease to be considered as a "category A epidemic disease" as of January 08, and the restrictions imposed in accordance with the Border Health and Quarantine Law will be lifted.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that passengers coming from abroad will not have to obtain a health code from China's embassies and consulates before travel, and they will not be kept in central quarantine even if they are positive on arrival. With these regulations, China has lifted its border control measures. After the restrictions were lifted, the first flights to the country were made by planes arriving from Canada to Guangcou, Singapore to Chinjin and New Zealand to Shanghai on the morning of 09 January.
In addition, passenger and freight crossings from 8 customs gates on China's land borders with Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam have returned to normal. Also on January 9, it was reported that more than 2,000 passengers from Doha, Dubai, Jakarta, New York, Seoul and other cities were waiting at Guangcou Baiyun International Airport to enter the country.
Kovid-19 control and isolation points were removed at the international terminal of Shanghai Pudong Airport, and the passengers of the first flight from New Zealand met with their relatives waiting at the terminal without any control measures. Pudong Airport, which was the busiest airport in the last 20 years in China, served 39 million passengers a year in 2019 before the epidemic, while this number decreased to 1.64 million in 2022 due to quarantine measures and flight restrictions. On the other hand, land, sea and air transportation between mainland China and Hong Kong has also started. It was seen that ticket bookings for flights from Hong Kong to China increased by 62 percent.
As of January 08, travel applications started to be accepted at the customs gates between Hong Kong and the mainland city of Xinjiang. It was observed that the crossings were sparse at this customs gate. It was reported that 1600 passengers passed through the Futien customs gate and 200 passengers passed through the Vincindu border gate.
