Provincial authorities in the tourist hub of Hainan in southern China allowed some domestic flights out of Sanya and Haikou to resume on August 15, a week after a snap lockdown was imposed to curb a growing number of localised COVID-19 cases.
Bloomberg reported that tourists would only be allowed to travel back home if there were no reported cases in the hotel they were staying at. They will also be subject to mandatory three-day quarantine upon arrival in mainland cities.
While China's recent ad-hoc lockdowns have tended to be less restrictive than earlier ones, with limited movement within the city still allowed, they have still disrupted air travel. Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows the majority of flights to Hainan's main airports to be cancelled even as of August 15. All flights to the island's third, albeit much smaller, airport at Qionghai remain cancelled.
Even though the authorities permitted some charter flights in during the lockdown, some 150,000 travellers were stranded in Hainan due to the restrictions.
A quarantine in Tibet also affected flights to Lhasa and Shigatse airports, although neither closed to traffic entirely.
The Chinese government has shifted from its zero-COVID policy to a "dynamic zero" strategy, which hinges upon snap lockdowns to isolate localised outbreaks. However, the authorities have tended to restrict, rather than ban, movement and have quarantined neighbourhoods rather than entire cities or provinces, as was the case before. International travel to and from China remains severely restricted.
