Direct flights with China opening up after two year hiatus

Direct flights between Portugal and China are to resume on 11 June, with one flight per week, after being suspended most recently six months ago. A source from Beijing Capital Airlines has told Lusa that flights between Lisbon and Xian, the capital of China’s Shaanxi province – and which constitute the only direct link between Portugal and East Asia – are being re-launched. Under the Chinese government’s ‘zero Covid’ strategy, the country’s borders have been kept all but closed since March 2020. There have been brief windows of relief, but essentially the last two years have been fraught with cancellations and uncertainty.