To further promote COVID prevention in Shanghai, China’s State Council has directed the re-routing of certain inbound international passenger flights into Shanghai from March 21st to May 1st, for 6 weeks. The measure involves 22 routes of 5 airlines, including Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Jixiang Airlines and Spring Airlines – a total of 106 flights.
The entry points of the above flights will be diverted from Shanghai Pudong Airport to 12 other airports, including Chengdu, Dalian, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Jinan, Kunming, Nanchang, Ningbo, Xiamen, Taiyuan, Changsha and Chongqing.
Freight-only flights are not impacted by this measure. Re-routings do not include Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan inbound passenger flights.
In terms of freight and logistics operations in Shanghai, the major issue is the manpower shortage affecting warehouse, terminal and trucking operations. The main highway into Shanghai has been closed 90%, with only limited traffic in/out of Shanghai. Drivers must have a 48-hour PCR negative report. Expect delays of 2–3 days compared with the normal process. Beyond this, air freight, ocean freight and customs operations are normal at the moment.