All Nippon Airways is planning to boost its China routes significantly

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is planning to boost its China routes significantly during the summer, in another sign of the increasing demand in the Chinese international market.

The carrier intends to resume one more Japan-China route in June that was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it expects to launch another. It also will add frequencies on four mainland China routes and its Hong Kong service.

In total, ANA will add about 20 weekly frequencies to mainland China and eight to Hong Kong.

These additions mean ANA will have restored 34% of its pre-pandemic flights to the mainland China market by June 5, an ANA spokeswoman told Aviation Daily.

A previous round of increases lifted ANA’s China flights to 20% of pre-pandemic levels in April. Before that, it was operating 10% of its flights in this market.

Data from CAPA and OAG show for the week of April 24, ANA is scheduled to operate 28.4% of its seat capacity in the mainland China market versus the same week in 2019. This is similar to the overall recovery rate for all carriers in the Japan-China market.

The latest changes announced include the resumption of ANA’s route between Osaka Kansai and Shanghai Pudong airports beginning June 5 with three weekly frequencies. ANA also is starting daily flights between Tokyo Haneda Airport and Shenzhen from May 20. Frequency increases will be made on routes from Tokyo Narita Airport to Dalian, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing in mainland China, and to Hong Kong.