News / Cargo cheers as Canada lifts restrictions on China flights

The North American wall against further encroachment by Chinese airlines is becoming porous: the Canadian government has decided to withdraw flight restrictions on China.

In response to the pandemic, in 2021 the authorities limited the number of flights operated by Chinese carriers to Canada to two scheduled round-trip passenger flights a week, raised the following year to six. These orders also prohibited non-stop flights.

Now Ottawa has rescinded the order, opening the way for Chinese, and Canadian, airlines to step up flying between the two countries, although it is not clear what prompted the move.

IATA statistics show global passenger traffic has largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, except to and from China. One reason is that China’s economic woes, notably a steep loss of equity in the housing market and poor employment prospects, are depressing domestic demand for overseas travel, while geopolitical tensions have dampened tourism to China.

The picture has been particularly grim on the transpacific, where both Canada and the US have maintained flight restrictions, as the war in Ukraine resulted in their airlines no longer being able to fly through Russian airspace. This put them at a disadvantage against their Chinese competitors, resulting in longer flight times and increased fuel costs.

US airline interest group Airlines for America has lobbied Washington aggressively to maintain the curbs on China flights.

Ottawa’s latest move opens the door to Chinese travellers and goods moving to the US via Canada. The Civil Administration of China said the increase in flights would help both sides meet their economic and trade needs and promote further recovery of the air transport market between the two countries.

Before the pandemic, there were 110 weekly round-trips between the two countries, with about two-thirds operated by Chinese carriers. Currently four Chinese carriers, Air China, Hainan Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and Xiamen Air, fly to Vancouver, while China Eastern and China Southern run flights to Toronto from Shanghai and Guangzhou, respectively.

Reportedly, Chinese airlines are eager to increase Canada flights. Chinese online travel agency Qunar.com reported increases of 110% and 150% respectively in flight searches to Toronto and Vancouver after the news of the lifting of flight restrictions was announced.

Air Canada (AC) is planning to boost its China flights out of Vancouver from four to 14 weekly frequencies; next month it will increase its flights to Shanghai from four a week to daily, followed on 15 January by daily Vancouver-Beijing flights – all using B787 aircraft.

“We are resuming our non-stop services between Canada and Beijing and increasing our flights between Canada and Shanghai, reflecting the importance of these markets in Air Canada’s global network,” said Mark Galardo, EVP – revenue and network planning.

And the airline’s cargo division is looking forward to more flights. Matthieu Casey, MD commercial of AC Cargo, said: “We’re indeed very happy about the additional flights to China, which will continue to fuel the great growth patterns we’ve been experiencing there. We’ve been tremendously successful and full in both directions, requiring us to leverage our interline partnerships even further to fulfil the demand we are seeing and using other gateways to add to our online capacity.”

US carriers do not appear alarmed, though. Airlines for America has not commented on the issue. Presumably the incoming Trump administration will take a dim view of Ottawa’s decision to loosen restrictions on Chinese carriers.