A few days ago, Lufthansa announced on its Chinese Weibo channel that it had “adjusted” its flight schedule for China. That was a rather euphemistic description of the cutback that the Chinese aviation regulator ordered the German company to have: All Lufthansa passenger flights to China for this week and the next three have been canceled. For the destination airports of Qingdao and Shenyang, the bans apply until the end of March. According to the Federal Ministry of Transport, there is currently only one passenger flight between Germany and China per week, operated by the airline Air China. "All other flights are currently suspended," said a spokeswoman.The German Chamber of Commerce in China speaks of a "current temporary quasi-cessation of direct flight connections between Germany and China". The reason is called omicron.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

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China's zero-Covid strategy envisages that if five or more passengers on a flight test positive for the coronavirus after landing, a route will be closed for two to eight weeks.

China speaks of “stop switch rules”.

They are not new, but with the appearance of the Omicron variant, the number of canceled flights has reached a new record.

Since the beginning of the year, China has canceled 22 flights by German airlines, as the Federal Ministry of Transport informed the FAZ on request.

Special rules for athletes

Despite China's assertions that the same rules apply to Chinese airlines, Germany has responded to the lockdown with "reciprocal measures".

In other words, the Federal Aviation Office is also canceling 22 flights operated by Chinese providers by the end of March.

According to the Chinese service provider Flight Manager, more than 140 international flight routes were blocked in January.

This is the highest level since China introduced the "stop switch rules" in June 2020.

In all of last year, there were 529 bans.

One reason why so many corona cases are emerging after landing, despite the fact that all passengers are required to present negative PCR tests before boarding, is the higher threshold that China sets for the tests. In Germany, a person tested with a CT value of 30 is no longer considered infectious. In China, on the other hand, only from a CT value of 40. For participants in the Olympic Games, Beijing has just lowered this value to 35 under pressure from the International Olympic Committee so that fewer athletes are affected. The special flights on which the participants arrive are not subject to the "stop switch rules" because they are not allowed to leave the Olympic bubble. Otherwise the games could hardly take place. Other countries are also defending themselves against the Chinese approach with reciprocal measures.

The United States accused China last week of violating its obligations under the Sino-US transport agreement.

Washington announced that it would cancel 44 flights from America to China operated by Chinese operators.

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington called the measure "very unreasonable" because the preventive measures would be applied equally to foreign and Chinese airlines.

Curiously, he added: "We call on the American side to stop interrupting and restricting normal passenger traffic." Beijing has not officially made such a statement to Germany, which is behaving in the same way.

Jens Hildebrandt, executive board member of the German Chamber of Commerce in China, complains: "German companies are stagnating development projects, investments are delayed and staff rotations are postponed." The Chamber of Commerce therefore organizes its own charter flights for employees of German companies.

In the opposite direction, on the other hand, you can still book regular flights, including with Lufthansa.

On the way there, the machines are filled with cargo.

Even without the penalties, China has kept regular flight schedules to a minimum: a maximum of five flights per week per country are allowed.

Before the pandemic, there were more than ten times as many between Germany and China.