Travelling from Brussels to Shanghai will once again be possible this summer, as two or three direct flights will be departing from the international airport in Zaventem every day.
Hainan Airlines will fly in both directions four times a week from 18 June, resuming a route that was halted when the Covid-19 pandemic first hit.
The airline already runs daily flights from Brussels to Beijing, and to Shenzhen three times a week. With the new announcement, it will operate "double-daily" flights between Belgium and China.
Juneyao Air, another Shanghai-based airline, will operate the same Brussels-Shanghai route three times a week from 1 July. The airline has never flown from Zaventem before.
Concerted boost
From last week, Belgians who travel to China for a period of two weeks or less no longer need a visa. The same rules apply to visitors from Austria, Luxembourg and Hungary, and late last year, visa-free travel was introduced for tourists from seven other European countries as well as Malaysia.
These measures are part of a concerted effort to revitalise China's tourism sector which is yet to fully recover from the effects of the pandemic. The country recorded 35.5 million visits from abroad in 2023, down from 97.7 million in 2019.
