The vital air link between Nanjing and Germany was restored this morning after COVID 19, with the first Lufthansa extension flight from Frankfurt arriving at Lukou today, marking another important milestone in Nanjing's return to normality.
At 11:14 a.m. today, flight LH780 arrived at Lukou International Airport in Nanjing without any incident. As there is no crew waiting to take over the inbound flight, the aircraft will spend the night on the tarmac, and in accordance with international aviation regulations, the flight crew is entitled to have necessary rest time. Accordingly, return flights to Frankfurt should depart tomorrow.
According to existing Chinese regulations, if five passengers are found to be positive for COVID-19, the airline will have to stop any flights on the route. The flight will be grounded for 1 week. If more than 10 passengers test positive, the airline's flights to that destination will be grounded for four weeks. If no passengers test positive for 3 weeks in a row, the airline can increase the frequency of its flights to twice a week.
The Lufthansa flight arriving today was flown by a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, significantly larger than the Airbus 340 that normally flies the route. With only 260 passengers on a large plane, this provides the airline with the opportunity to practice social distancing, keeping up to a third of the seats are empty.
With epidemic prevention in place, there is currently only one flight per week, and tickets fly to Frankfurt are hard to book. Recent tickets for that flight are currently selling out quickly.
The direct flight from Nanjing to Germany is popular among international people in Nanjing, not only because of its relatively short flight time of only 10 hours but also because of the countless connecting flights from Frankfurt to the various destination of Europe and beyond.
Flight LH780/LH781 will initially resume weekly, operated by Boeing 747-8 aircraft, and will operate on Mondays from the airport. Departing Frankfurt, we expect to land in Nanjing at 11:05 on Tuesday and return from Nanjing at 13:10 on Wednesday.
As of now, Nanjing Lukou International Airport has resumed the following international flights.
1. Starting from July 3, Alitalia will resume flights to Milan = Nanjing, arriving every Friday and departing every Saturday.
2. Starting from 6 July, PHL will operate Manila=Nanjing flights on Mondays.
3. Lufthansa resumes Frankfurt=Nanjing flights as of July 7, arriving on Tuesdays and departing on Wednesdays.
4. Asiana Airlines will resume flights to Seoul and Nanjing on July 12
source: nanjing airport etc
