Airlines face hurdles to cashing in on China re-opening

The United States and European airlines will benefit from pent-up demand for travel to China after its recent border reopening, but route approvals, fresh Covid-19 testing rules and not enough large aircraft remain barriers to rising sales, analysts and industry officials say.

Travel is returning to China, the world's largest outbound tourism market worth US$255 billion in 2019, after the country ended mandatory quarantines on Jan. 8. Airfares from China are now 160 per cent higher than before the pandemic, data from travel firm ForwardKeys shows, due to limited supply.