Airfreight traffic rebounds as epidemic disruption subsides

Despite being severely affected by several waves of COVID-19 during the first half of this year, China's airfreight transportation is recovering, according to the Civil Aviation Administration.

The number of cargo flights is high, with international cargo flights especially showing year-on-year growth. Between January and July, there were 163,000 cargo flights, including 117,000 international flights, a year-on-year increase of 1.8 percent, according to Liang Nan, director of the administration's department of transportation, at a news conference on Thursday.

"The volume of air cargo during the first half of the year followed a V-shaped curve due to the impact of outbreaks in some areas of China, especially Shanghai, but it has recently returned to normal levels," Liang said, noting that flights had been dropping since March and declined to a low of 420,000 metric tons in April.