Yesterday afternoon, a poster of London flying from Geneva to Shanghai, operated by a 787 business jet, spread across my circle of friends. The information on the poster showed that each seat of this flight started at 180,000 yuan.
Last night, it was reported that the chartered flight of this official flight was sold out within two hours after the tickets were released. According to the news from the operator Jinlu Official Service, the business plane has indeed received more than 100 reservation demands, mainly from London.
At the same time, the new flights from London to Shanghai that were just launched last night were sold out overnight. Is the air ticket back to China really that difficult to buy?
Why is it hard to get a ticket to return to China?
Since March, the new crown epidemic in China has been controlled to a certain extent, but the number of confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia outside China has increased by 15 times in two weeks, with a total of more than 50,000 cases, involving more than 120 countries and regions.
Faced with the increasingly severe epidemic situation abroad, many overseas Chinese and international students have begun to choose to return to China to avoid the epidemic, which has also made it difficult to get a ticket for air tickets to return to China.
Before this, due to the implementation of entry restrictions on China by various countries during the Spring Festival, many intercontinental routes to Europe and the United States were cancelled. For example, American airlines on the China-US route had already stopped all direct routes from the United States to mainland China. Air China and China Eastern Airlines only retained one flight from the east coast east coast and the West Coast to China under the requirement of continuous flights in the country, which also made the capacity of flights returning to China by Europe and the United States.
A telephone customer service staff of a domestic airline revealed to reporters that since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the number of calls for consultation on international flight business has been much higher than usual. In the early stage, we were consulting how to go abroad if we were about to start school, and now we were consulting on how to come back from abroad. In particular, some parents of international students are very worried about the health and safety of their children abroad, which has also increased the sales of airline direct telephone tickets.
According to the reporter, most parents of international students have bought air tickets for their children to return to China last week, hoping that their children can fly directly to China to avoid the epidemic. As of Friday, the air tickets for direct flights from Europe and the United States to Shanghai in March have basically been sold out. However, many domestic second- and third-tier cities that have not yet cut off flights from Europe and the United States still have a small amount of remaining tickets, but the return economy class ticket price is already tens of thousands, and there are also airline ticket agents who bookmark airline seats in advance to increase the price, and economy class is also called at a high price of 30,000 yuan.
charter flights show their magical powers
Although it is difficult to get tickets for direct flights from Europe and the United States to return to China through the airline app and OTA platform, many Chinese and parents of overseas students who want to return to China still "kneel" everywhere to "beg" for direct flights from China.
There are also many Chinese outsiders asking airlines for help to return to China through commercial charter flights. However, due to various constraints such as time, policy and other reasons and considerations of prevention and control capabilities in various places, airlines currently need unified allocations to apply for commercial charter flights to Europe and the United States.
The latest news obtained by the First Financial reporter is that at 18:50 local time on March 15, local time, Air China will launch its first commercial charter flight from Italy to Wenzhou, Italy, and it will fly directly from Milan, Italy. It is planned to arrive at Wenzhou Longwan International Airport at 14:20 on the second day of Beijing time, using Air China's largest aircraft Boeing 747. The air ticket price is 3625 euros for business class adults, 2772 euros for children, 2660 euros for economy class adults, and 2027 euros for children. Registration for overseas Chinese from Zhejiang is preferred: elderly people over 70 years old and children under 10 years old, children can be accompanied by an adult.
Before this, direct flights in China and Italy had been completely grounded, and many overseas Chinese who were going back to China wanted to apply for commercial charter flights. This group of overseas Chinese are mainly from Wenzhou. According to the reporter, China Eastern Airlines is also preparing for another charter flight from Italy to Wenzhou.
However, the approval time for commercial charter flights is long and the process is very complicated. More overseas Chinese and international students from other European and American countries have begun to seek business charter flights to return to China. Many ticket agents also show their magical powers. In addition to continuing to swipe seats in various reservation systems, they also began to look for resources to distribute official charter flights.
At present, domestic airlines are also trying to find ways to resume international flights that were suspended due to entry restrictions in various countries, especially after the Civil Aviation Administration and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued a notice recently to reward international flights that have been suspended and resumed execution.
However, according to the reporter, it is not easy for airlines to resume international flights at present. Even if the airline already has the time and right to the relevant international routes, under the background of the joint prevention and control of the state, resuming flights still require approval from the Civil Aviation Administration or even higher level. At the same time, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the pressure of large passenger flows back to China in various places after the resumption of flights.
It is worth noting that China Southern Airlines (600029) announced on Friday that it plans to gradually resume international passenger flights from Guangzhou to Australia and New Zealand, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and other regions starting from March 13, and is expected to carry out more than 1,600 international flights. However, some flights did not enter the system for sale in the end. A passenger who returned to China for direct flights to the first class flight next week who was rushing to buy via China Southern Airlines customer service phone also received a refund message notification that "seat cannot be confirmed". How to return to China by
? Go back to China?
Although direct flights are hard to find, a transfer is still a feasible way to return home. Recently, Xiao Wu, who was going back to China after studying in the United States, chose the route from Washington, USA to go back to Shanghai via Ethiopia .
"Generally speaking, the common transit places between China and the United States are Canada, Philippines , Japan, and South Korea. Uncommon transit places include Finland, Russia, Qatar , the United Arab Emirates, etc. However, with the development of the epidemic, whether it is a common or uncommon transit place, it has either become an epidemic area or imposed restrictions on the entry of Chinese citizens," Xiao Wu recalled to reporters that after excluding the transit places between Canada, South Korea, the Philippines, and Japan, he finally chose Ethiopian Airlines to transfer in Addis Ababa.
"The attendance rate of flights from North America and Europe to Ethiopia is generally low. Ethiopia currently has close flight connections with the four major cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Rong in China, and the models are all 777, 787 and 350. In addition, Ethiopia's electronic visa on arrival is also very convenient, and the fare is only half of the direct flight price." Xiao Wu said.
When asked about the questions related to the embassy’s suggestions if many Chinese people want to return to China in the future, Cui Tiankai, ambassador to the United States, said in an interview with CCTV News OnePlus column on Friday that according to the suggestions of many professional institutions, including the World Health Organization, large-scale gatherings and long-distance travel should be minimized, because long-distance travel will also increase the risk of infection. He hopes that overseas Chinese and international students in the United States should carefully weigh the pros and cons and try to avoid risks.
Cui Tiankai also said that the most basic thing now is to protect yourself and do whatever is conducive to protecting yourself. Of course, if overseas Chinese and international students in the United States have carefully considered it and finally have various reasons to think that they still need to go back, the embassy and consulate in the United States will also find ways to solve specific problems and provide various conveniences.
