After 45 months, key SFO to Beijing flights return simply earlier than APEC
Air China has resumed two weekly direct flights between San Francisco and Beijing, restoring one other hyperlink to San Francisco’s most profitable supply of tourism earlier than the pandemic.
The Wednesday and Saturday flights returned this week after a pause of greater than three years, having stopped in February 2020 simply earlier than the pandemic erupted within the U.S.
San Francisco and Chinese language officers introduced the return of flights underneath Chinatown’s Dragon Gate on Wednesday, alongside a stream of vacationers visiting the neighborhood and the every day hum of downtown site visitors. There was unanimous hope that the connection would enhance town’s important tourism sector, and likewise create extra alternatives for “fostering cultural alternate,” within the phrases of Wei Zhou, an Air China common supervisor.
Chinese language vacationers spent $1.2 billion in San Francisco in 2019, probably the most of any international group, in keeping with San Francisco Journey, town’s tourism bureau. That was a report yr for native tourism, and 518,000 of town’s 4.3 million international guests had been from China.
China had one of the crucial stringent restrictions of any nation in the course of the pandemic and was one of many final to permit residents to go overseas for leisure up to now yr. Chinese language residents additionally want a visa to go to the U.S., and the shortage of Chinese language vacationers has badly harm the Chinatown space specifically.
“To me, this alerts the start of the turnaround for mainland Chinese language visitation to San Francisco,” stated Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, who represents Chinatown. “It’s going to take time to rebuild.”
The primary AirChina flight arrived in San Francisco Worldwide Airport on Wednesday, simply 10 days earlier than the large Asian-Pacific Financial Cooperation summit is predicted to convey 20,000 attendees to town, together with world leaders like Chinese language President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden.
Supervisor Connie Chan, the one Chinese language-American member of the board, stated that whereas conferences between world leaders would enhance cooperation between the U.S. and China, extra widespread tourism was extra important for “sustainable relationship constructing” and sharing experiences round completely different cultures, languages and meals.
United Airways, SFO’s largest service, can be resuming every day flights between San Francisco and Beijing in November after increasing SFO to Shanghai flights final month.
The resumption of flights may even bolster San Francisco’s picture as “a world hub,” she stated.
Air China was the primary airline to have a direct flight to the U.S., with its first flight on Jan. 7, 1981, stated Jianmin Zhang, China’s Consul Normal in San Francisco. (The Chinese language authorities is the airline’s majority proprietor.) It was a pivotal second in normalizing relations between the 2 international locations, he stated, and he sees in the present day as a equally important second.
“I additionally really feel individuals are not 100% completed with the pandemic except we’re in a position to journey conveniently and freely, identical to earlier than the pandemic,” stated Zhang. “We nonetheless have a protracted solution to go. I’m conscious that because of the pandemic, many had been unable to go to their households and pals for a very long time. And nonetheless others are daunted by the excessive value of air tickets. That has received to alter. And I’m so glad that change is coming. Change is occurring in the present day.”
Attain Roland Li: roland.li@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @rolandlisf
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