Chinese airlines are expected to further increase international flights with the orderly recovery of aviation sector and growing passenger demand after the COVID-19 measures eased.

A total of 537,000 passengers were carried on Chinese airlines' international routes in the third quarter of this year, up 36.3 percent from the same period in 2021, according to data released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

In October, the number of passengers transported on international routes reached 201,000, registering a year-on-year growth of 86.7 percent.

With the orderly resumption of international passenger flights, a number of airlines have increased capacity on international routes since the start of the fourth quarter.

At Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport, a southern aviation hub of China, the frequency of a scheduled flight to Singapore has increased to once a week since Thursday, using the A330 wide-body aircraft.

"Since the resumption of Shenzhen-Singapore route on Oct. 28, the passenger demand has been very strong. Therefore, we have changed to use the A330-300 wide-body aircraft that has more seats since Dec 1. It can take 270-280 passengers at full capacity. The original type was A320 narrow-body aircraft with 170 to 180 seats at full capacity," said Li Haitao, deputy manager of ground service support department of an airline company's Shenzhen branch.

The Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines have recently announced that they will continue to gradually recover and increase international flights.

"Since the beginning of this year, China Southern Airlines has actively promoted the recovery of international routes and has resumed four international routes, namely Shenzhen to Jakarta, Moscow, Dubai and Singapore. At present, it seems that the international market is gradually recovering. The total number of flights and passenger flow is growing exponentially," said Guo Xuan, sales and marketing manager of China Southern Airlines Shenzhen branch.

Data from online travel platform Qunar showed that China's international flights have been increasing as of Thursday, up 78 percent over the same period last year, and 94 percent compared with the beginning of October.

Average daily searches for international flights rose 60 percent from early October, while the average ticket price on international routes fell 14.5 percent to 5,651 yuan (about 805 U.S. dollars).

"Due to the increase of the total flights and the relatively sufficient supply, the price of some air tickets has fallen back. Under the current situation, the routes to Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries have increased significantly," said Liu Ting, senior manager of public affairs of Qunar.

Industry insiders believe that the international air ticket bookings will continue to grow with the recent adjustment of border exit and entry policies. The sales of some international flights are expected to double in December.

Su Baoliang, chief transportation industry analyst at China Merchants Securities, said that the room for international routes' recovery remains very large at present, despite the fact that the scheduled flights during the winter and spring season have increased by 105 percent over the same period last year, which matches the growing demand.

The Chinese government on Nov 11 announced 20 prevention and control measures for further optimizing the COVID-19 response, including canceling the circuit breaker mechanism for inbound flights, reducing the number of the negative tests requirement for inbound travelers to once in 48 hours before boarding, adjusting the standard of judging an inbound traveler as a positive case as well as shortening the quarantine period for inbound groups to five days of quarantine at designated sites plus three days of home quarantine.