Chartered planes to fly students to UK in exemplary cooperation

A chartered Hainan Airlines aircraft took off from Chongqing airport on Monday with 74 Chinese students headed for United Kingdom for studies. This was the first instance of a domestic airline sending Chinese students abroad on a chartered flight, since the novel coronavirus broke out.

According to an announcement on Hainan Airline's official website, the decision to send students on chartered flights was approved by both Chinese and UK authorities. Twenty-three universities had asked for such chartered flights and coordinated with Hainan Airlines to help Chinese students wanting to fly to the UK for their studies.

Media reports say, some 90 chartered flights will ferry 20,000 Chinese students during the UK's back-to-school season from September to November. The International Facts and Figures 2019 report issued in July 2019 by Universities UK, the representative organization of 139 universities, said 106,000 Chinese students are pursuing bachelor's degrees or above in the UK, accounting for 23.2 percent of the total overseas students in the country.