British Airways to resume flights to mainland China after two-year suspension

British Airways will resume flights to mainland China from April onwards.

Tickets from London to Shanghai and Beijing have gone on sale from 3 February.

It follows a two-year suspension from BA on these routes, due to strict Covid travel rules.

The announcement comes after China finally eased some of its restrictions for travellers in January for the first time since the pandemic began.

While tourism visas are still not yet being issued for the People’s Republic, all Covid testing rules and quarantine regulations were dropped, and Chinese people have been able to travel abroad for leisure trips once more.

Flights between London Heathrow and Shanghai Pudong International Airport will be scheduled daily, beginning 23 April.

Meanwhile, flights from Heathrow to Beijing Daxing Airport are set to operate four times a week from 3 June.

British Airways has been taking passengers to China since 1980, with Covid being responsible for the first break in operations between the two countries in 40 plus years.

Although BA flights to China did restart around August 2020, they stopped again around January 2021 due to rising rates of infection and were never resumed.

Noella Ferns, British Airways’ Head of Sales, Asia Pacific, said: “We can’t wait to welcome our customers back on board our flights from Shanghai and Beijing.

“We know they’ve been looking forward to reuniting with family and friends, coming to study in the UK and resuming business between China and the UK.

“We have an incredibly rich history of flying to mainland China, having connected the two countries for more than 40 years. We look forward to resuming these routes again.”

For passengers concerned about virus transmission, BA has also outlined the health standards upheld onboard all aircraft.

A statement from the airline said: “The air on all British Airways’ flights is fully recycled once every two to three minutes through HEPA filters, which remove microscopic bacteria and virus clusters with more than 99.9 per cent efficiency, equivalent to hospital operating theatre standards.”