Lufthansa is examining its flight schedule to mainland China after Beijing said it would scrap quarantine requirements for international arrivals from January 8.
A spokesperson for the the Lufthansa Group – which includes SWISS and Austrian Airlines, along with the namesake German flag carrier – said on Tuesday the company was looking at adjusting its flights to China.
Lufthansa currently flies four times a week from Frankfurt to Beijing and Shanghai. Subsidiary Austrian already announced before the rules were relaxed that it would fly twice a week from Vienna to Shanghai from January 13, instead of once a week.
China is downgrading the danger level of the coronavirus as of January 8, which means travellers will no longer have to go into quarantine after their arrival.
Currently, travellers have to spend at least five days in a hotel in quarantine, isolating and subject to close monitoring. At some points during the pandemic, incoming travellers had to go into quarantine for 21 days.
Travellers will only have to show proof they have tested negative for Covid-19 before departing for China. They will not have to test on arrival.
Chinese nationals are to be allowed to travel abroad more easily again.
The easing comes after China suddenly ended its zero-Covid policy on December 7, following almost three years of lockdowns, mass testing and other tough measures.
The virus is spreading rapidly in China since the change of policy. According to internal estimates that have not been officially confirmed, 248 million people, or 18% of the population, were infected with Covid-19 in the first three weeks of December alone.
