- Long wait times for visa applications are preventing people in China from traveling internationally as much as they would like, Jane Sun, CEO of travel booking site Trip.com, told CNBC’s Eunice Yun.
- Another challenge for outbound travel from China, Sun said, is the number of flights.
Passengers walk through the passenger terminal at Beijing Capital International Airport, China.
Tingshu Wang | Reuters
Long wait times for visa applications are preventing people in China from traveling internationally as much as they would like, Jane Sun, CEO of travel booking site Trip.com Group, told CNBC’s Eunice Yun.
For example, Schengen visa applications take two to six months, Sun said, “which is a very long time.”
It claimed that demand for international travel from China “far exceeded” the level of 2019, before the pandemic. She said that the demand for domestic travel exceeded the 2019 level by 60%.
Sun said that another challenge facing travel abroad from China is the number of flights, noting that the capacity of flights to the United States does not exceed 6% of what it was before the epidemic.
As of August, the US only allowed 12 round-trip passenger flights per week from China to the US, and that was scheduled to rise to 18 flights per week starting September 1, and 24 flights per week starting October 29.
Other regions saw flights to and from China restore more quickly.
Son said flights to the Asia-Pacific region have recovered by more than 50%, while flight capacity to the Middle East has doubled from pre-pandemic levels.